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Mom Beats School Bus Driver, Exposes Herself to Cops

By Cynthia Hsu, Esq. on November 14, 2011 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

A Florida mom was arrested after she beat a school bus driver while a bus full of students, including her own teen daughter, watched. Marsia Emanuel has been charged with burglary of an occupied vehicle, battery of a public education worker and disturbing the peace.

Oh, and she was also charged with indecent exposure.

It's unclear why she decided to do any of this. She exposed herself to officers before she was arrested. (Was this her own kind of police protest?)

This is only one of many unexplained facts of this case.

The timeline of events is below, though it only leads to many more unanswered questions:

  • Emanuel hailed the bus driver to stop. The reason why she wanted to get on the school bus is unclear.
  • She then refused to leave, which is when she started assaulting the bus driver. The reasoning here is also unknown. It might have been because the driver told her she needed to leave the bus.
  • After she finished striking the bus driver, she exposed herself to police when they arrived. Perhaps this Florida mom was just thinking she could somehow distract officers and then make a hasty getaway?

So many unanswered questions. It's hard to imagine what Marsia Emanuel's motives were here. It doesn't sound like she had any justification to assault the bus driver. It simply sounds like a mom just snapped and publicly lost it, doesn't it?

Knowing what motivates someone can be instrumental in understanding a person's thought process. It can also help get a criminal conviction. Juries are more likely to believe a person would commit a crime for a reason.

But don't count on any of these facts ever going before a jury. Once Ms. Emanuel has calmed down, expect her to accept a plea deal to help this whole mess go away as quietly as possible. Or perhaps the mom who beat the school bus driver had reasons only known to her. Either way, the likelihood of this going to trial is slim to none.

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