By Sarah Marston
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 5, 2008

A school bus aide in Montgomery County was charged yesterday with sexually abusing two female students, including an 11-year-old with special needs.

Franklin D. Smith, 61, of the Hyattsville area was arrested and held on $60,000 bond, authorities said. The school system has placed him on administrative leave with pay, spokesman Steve Simon said.

Police began an investigation in April after the 11-year-old, a student at Glen Haven Elementary School in Silver Spring, reported that Smith sexually molested her on the bus, police said. A juvenile witness corroborated the girl's account, police said.

Court records do not list an attorney for Smith. Efforts to reach relatives or identify a phone number for his home were unsuccessful.

School bus aides are placed on a bus if a student with special needs is onboard, Simon said. He did not know whether Smith, who was hired in 2004, oversaw more than one special-needs student.

During the investigation, police learned that a female student made an allegation against Smith in 2005. The student, who was then 17 and attending Paint Branch High School in Burtonsville, told police that Smith had "made suggestive remarks and repeatedly massaged her head and shoulders while on the bus during January and February," police said in a news release.

The student, who is no longer in the school system, said Smith touched her in a sexual manner in February 2005, police said. Simon said schools officials reported the allegation to child welfare workers, who found insufficient justification to take action against Smith, Simon said.

"It was looked into, and action was not taken based on the information available," Simon said.

Smith was charged yesterday with multiple counts of sexual abuse of a minor, assault, child abuse and sexual offense.