back-to-school

Published on: August 22, 2025

Neighbor angry over bus stop placement uses sprinklers on students with disabilities, police say.

Police say a man is facing charges after he sprayed students with disabilities using his sprinkler system during a dispute over a neighborhood bus stop in Ocala.

Antonio Roman, 61, was charged on Aug. 17 with four counts of stalking, two counts of battery on a disabled person and two counts of battery.

Since at least Aug. 8, 2024, police say Roman activated his sprinklers twice a day to “intentionally spray the family who lived next door,” officials with the Marion County Sheriff’s Office told Miami Herald reporters. This allegedly occurred specifically when two students with special needs were loaded and unloaded from the bus stop. Police told reporters that the father began wearing a swimsuit to “shield his children from Roman’s sprinklers.

Published on: August 19, 2025

Girl, 11, Hit by Car Near Bus Stop in Port St. Lucie. What to Know.

By Leesfield & Partners

An 11-year-old girl has been hospitalized with critical injuries after she was hit by a car near a bus stop in Port St. Lucie Friday.

The crash happened before 8:40 a.m. near the intersection of SW Thornhill Drive and SW Gemini Lane, according to reporting from local media. A neighbor’s surveillance camera captured the moment the child attempted to cross the street on her way to her bus stop and was hit. The driver immediately stopped and called paramedics, according to the article.

The girl was airlifted to St. Mary’s Medical Center in critical condition.

Published on: July 31, 2025

Leesfield & Partners Answers: When do I stop for a school bus in Florida? Other school-zone-traffic-related questions

By Leesfield & Partners

With the dreaded return of school bells this August comes the equally as detested return of morning traffic in Miami; here’s everything you need to know about school zone laws in Florida.

As a personal injury law firm with nearly five decades of experience handling pedestrian-involved accidents and other motor vehicle accidents, Leesfield & Partners attorneys know just how dangerous Florida roads can be. From distractions on the roads such as cellphones to driving under the influence, our skilled trial attorneys have handled just about every injury that can occur on the road.

In a previous and tragic Leesfield & Partners case, a child’s life was forever changed one morning when he was hit by a speeding driver while trying to board his school bus. The boy’s school bus driver instructed him to cross the street while stopped in the middle of the road instead of as far to the right as possible. The driver also instructed our client and other children to cross the street where there was no designated crosswalk.

Published on: August 30, 2024

Miami-Dade Drivers Don’t Know School Traffic Laws, School Bus Cameras Footage Shows. What You Should Know.

By Leesfield & Partners

Do you have to stop for a school bus in Florida?

In the first two weeks of school, approximately 11,500 Miami-Dade County drivers were cited after footage captured from 950 school district buses caught them disobeying traffic laws.

The cameras were authorized last year to add extra protections for students getting on and off buses during the school year. While laws already exist to ensure drivers who violate these laws are held accountable, the cameras were installed to reinforce the matter. The initiative is a collaboration between the local school district, the Miami-Dade Police Department and BusPatrol, a private company with programs in 17 states that manages the buses and the technology that captures the license plates of cars that illegally pass buses with deployed stop signals.

Published on: August 5, 2024

Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles issues statewide alert as part of awareness campaign for child safety

By Leesfield & Partners

Florida public safety partners have banded together to create a “Safe Start to the New School Year with Awareness” campaign ahead of the scheduled return to classes across the state in mid-August, according to a Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles press release.

As parents, educators and students alike prepare for the return to school for the 2024-25 school year, FLHSMV and other agencies have begun a campaign to raise awareness around school bus, school zone and crosswalk safety as well as other initiatives to ensure that children can get to and from school safely. With the help of surveys, citation data and safety tips, these groups aim to shed light on the public safety issue.

In the data released by the FLHSMV, there were 11,224 illegal passes of school buses. The data was gathered in a survey of school bus operators by the Florida Department of Education. This was the same year that the Florida legislature passed House Bill 0657 and Senate Bill 0766 which authorized local jurisdictions to implement and operate school zone speed detection systems and school bus passing infraction detection systems. As of 2021, the penalties for passing a stopped bus on the side where children enter and exit doubled as well as the penalties for failing to stop for a school bus.