Early this afternoon Jeanette Burrage, the former King County Superior Court judge and Des Moines City Councilmember accused of slapping an autistic 6-year-old, resigned from the city council.
Her resignation came in the form of a letter addressed to the city council and the public. It reads:

Dear Mayor, City Councilmembers, and People of Des Moines,
It is with a heavy heart that I resign my position as a Des Moines City Councilmember. The City Council has important work to do and I anticipate the only way I can minimize the distraction to the City Council, caused by the recent school bus incident, is to resign effective immediately.
Sincerely,
Jeanette Burrage

“I appreciate the fact that councilmember Burrage took into consideration the impact her situation would have on the council being able to conduct the business it needs to do and took the steps necessary that would be able to do it,” said Mayor Dave Kaplan of the announcement.

62-year-old Burrage was not only a councilmember but was also driving a school bus for the Highline School District.

On March 10, while Burrage was driving her afternoon route an autistic 6-year-old, who does not normally ride the bus, became agitated and began screaming and standing on his seat. When Burrage and another school official attempted to calm the boy he hit her, at which point she retaliated by slapping the student across the face.

The entire incident was captured on the bus’s video surveillance system and later reviewed by Highline School officials. Initially the investigating officials were unaware of an assault but later discovered the incident after multiple reviews of the footage.

On March 18 school security officers reported their findings to the SeaTac police who partnered with the KCSO’s Special Assault Unit for their investigation. The Special Assault Unit regularly handles investigations involving minors.

The King County Sheriff’s Office announced through a press release that Burrage would be charged with Fourth Degree Assault on April 16. Initially Burrage informed the media that she would not seek re-election to the council but would finish out her term, which would have ended in December.

Over the weekend the Des Moines City Hall was inundated with calls and emails from citizens demanding Burrage resign immediately.

“We received emails, council received emails, and some phone calls, and running into people at the grocery store and what-not, and we heard from a lot of different people. A number of the emails went to the entire council, were sent to a distribution email for the entire council, so I know that Jeanette saw those as well. Some of them were pretty caustic, you know, and I’m sure that helped play into it,” explained Kaplan.

According to Kaplan no discussions were held between the council and Burrage concerning the situation since it was not city business. The decision was made solely by Burrage.

On April 29 Burrage will be in court to be arraigned. The Highline School District announced last Friday that they will be seeking to terminate Burrage from being employed as a bus driver. Those discussions will be held by the school board on May 6.

Here is a link to video of the incident: http://on.aol.com/video/bus-driver-accused-of-slapping-special-needs-st…