Two teens involved in the Indiantown bus-stop confrontation spoke with local media after a father drew a concealed firearm during a dispute tied to an earlier bullying complaint. (WPFB)
An innocent Florida father is under attack by left-wing activists and local agitators after stepping in to defend his son from a violent bully at a school bus stop in Indiantown.
Despite law enforcement confirming that the father acted completely within the law to protect himself and his child, outraged activists, including local branches of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), are demanding that the father be locked up for assault with a deadly weapon.
According to Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek, the dispute began Thursday, September 17, on a Martin County school bus headed toward South Fork High School, WPBF reported.
A 16-year-old boy boarded with a pizza. A 14-year-old got on after him, demanded a piece, threatened him, and then smacked him in the head when the older boy would not hand it over.
The 16-year-old did what parents tell their kids to do. He went home and told his father.
That afternoon, the father went to the bus stop and spoke with the driver. She said she would try to handle it.
Friday morning, the father drove his son to the stop himself. The 14-year-old was already on the bus. As the boy boarded, the father again spoke with the driver, and the 14-year-old got off the bus to confront a grown man.
Other students started calling people to the scene. A 16-year-old who had been suspended from school showed up. Sheriff Budensiek said the two teens “look like grown men” as they walked up on the father, yelling.
The father put his hand up and told them to stay back.
“They got all the way up on him before he pulled out a concealed weapon and told them get back, which he’s legally allowed to do,” Budensiek said. “He’s legally allowed to stand his ground.”
The teens backed off. Not a shot was fired.
The father put the gun away, drove around the corner, flagged down a deputy, and reported the encounter himself. Detectives interviewed students on the bus and the people involved.
The sheriff said they got a consistent story. He also said investigators would have sought warrants on the 14-year-old and the 16-year-old who went after the dad, except the father declined to press charges.
Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek made it clear during a press briefing that the father committed no crime and acted entirely within his constitutional rights under Florida law, according to WPFB.
“To recap it, the individual with the gun was the victim in this case,” Budensiek said. “He just wants to be left alone. He wants his son to be left alone.”
“You are allowed to stand your ground whether the person coming after you is 16 or 24 or 34… He’s legally allowed to stand his ground.”
The boy has since been pulled from the school and is being homeschooled. The father, according to the sheriff, is a security guard who was wearing a badge and was legally carrying.
The two students involved, Trevor Ivory and RJ McIntyre, shared their perspective on the incident.
“I feel like under any circumstance, however you felt, no firearms should be displayed at a bus stop where there’s a bunch of kids on a bus looking forward to going to school,” Ivory said. “Instead, they had to see a man with a gun on two teenagers that they know ride the bus in the morning.”
The confrontation was a key topic during an NAACP community meeting held Tuesday night. The two students and their families attended the meeting, where emotions ran high.
“The dad had a thousand options. He chose the wrong option,” said Pam Ivory, Trevor’s aunt.
Jimmy Smith, president of the NAACP Martin County Branch, also addressed the situation.
“We know guns aren’t allowed on school property. They also shouldn’t be allowed in school bus stops,” Smith said.
Smith added that he plans to meet with the school board and the sheriff to discuss the incident further.
“We shouldn’t be pointing a gun at our children,” he said.
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