Brazoria Co. parents want their kids out of juvenile detention after bus fight

BRAZORIA COUNTY, TX (KTRK) -- Two Brazoria county parents say the laws keeping their boys locked up following a fight on a school bus are too harsh.

The boys, aged 10 and 11, have been in custody since Tuesday and their parents say they haven't been able to talk to them. They say the kids are being treated like hardened criminals.

"For him not to be able to talk to me and tell me how hes felling or for me to be able to tell him that he's ok... that its ok. Hurts me.. Hurts," said Sarah Almgren, mother of the older child.

Her son, Quinton, and the other boys were arrested and are charged with class A misdemeanor assault following the fight Thursday. They're in custody at the Brazoria County Juvenile Detention Center.

Almgren doesn't dispute her son was involved. She says she's seen a video of the fight posted on Youtube which has since been taken down.

"Nobody was hurt.. .they're smacking at each other," Almgren said.

She says the boys were already punished by the school district - given 30 days in an alternative school. So when they were arrested Tuesday she was stunned.

"I felt like, because he was already punished.. Nothing else should have happened," said Almgren.

A judge declined to release the boys to their families during a detention hearing. Legal experts say they can be held for up to ten days before the judge must again reconsider their release.

"An adult can be bonded out, a murderer can be bonded out, but a minor can't.. A juvenile can't," she said.

No official word on how badly the victim in that fight was injured. Quinton's mom says it wasn't severe.

Despite repeated calls, neither Brazosport ISD or the Brazoria County District Attorney's Office returned requests for comments about the case.