While Donald Trump’s claims that Haitian immigrants are kidnapping and eating pets aren’t supported by any evidence, vice-presidential nominee JD Vance’s exaggerated statements regarding a child killed in an Ohio school bus crash in August 2023. The father of the deceased child is telling Trump’s supporters to leave him and his family alone.
Hermanio Joseph was driving a Honda Odyssey when he approached an oncoming school bus on State Route 41 in Lawrenceville, Ohio. Joseph drove to the left of the center line as he neared the bus carrying 52 students, WCMH reported. The bus swerved onto the shoulder but still collided with the minivan. The school bus left the road and flipped on its side, hospitalizing 23 kids. One student was ejected from the bus during the crash and died at the scene, 11-year-old Aiden Clark.
Joseph, a Haitian immigrant, was found guilty of vehicular homicide in May 2024 and sentenced to nine to 13 years in prison. Clark’s death has since been used to demonize the recent influx of legal Haitian immigrant to Central Ohio. Nathan Clark, Aiden’s father, voiced his disdain over the hateful rhetoric spread using his son’s death during the Springfield City Commission on Tuesday:
“You know, I wish that my son, Aiden Clark, was killed by a 60-year-old white man. I bet you never thought anyone would ever say something so blunt. But if that guy killed my 11-year-old son, the incessant group of hate-spewing people would leave us alone. The last thing that we need is to have the worst day of our lives violently and constantly shoved in our faces.”
“Using Aiden as a political tool is, to say the least, reprehensible. My son, Aiden Clark, was not murdered. He was accidentally killed by an immigrant from Haiti.”
The Republican Party ticket are willing to say anything to win the White House because an electoral loss in November could mean a one-way trip to prison for President Donald Trump.
