PASCO COUNTY, Fla. — After years of fighting, a bill in the statehouse could pay out damages of more than a million dollars to a Tampa Bay family.
Robin and Marcus Button have been waiting a long time for justice.
"It's been really rough since all this has happened to him,” Robin said. “I never knew I had such patience until all this happened.”
It was 18 years ago that everything changed for Marcus. He was riding passenger in a car along State Route 54 when a local Pasco County school bus turned into oncoming traffic.
The school bus driver was cited for failure to yield. The Buttons sued the school district and won a judgment of one and a half million dollars, but were only paid two hundred thousand dollars because of a cap on damages against public entities.
“I have multiple traumatic brain injuries,” Marcus said. “I'm half-blind, I have nerve damage. It makes me feel like I could've had so much more and that I’ve missed out on a lot of opportunities I never got the chance for because I’m disabled. And I should've never been disabled, just like the bus driver never should have run the stop sign.”
For the last decade, Marcus and his family have lobbied the state legislature to force the full payout from Pasco County Schools in what's called a claims bill. This year, they found someone to get it nearly across the finish line in Pensacola representative Alex Andrade.
"He's the same age I am,” Andrade says. “I'm 34. This happened to him when he was 16 and I just thought about what my life would look like if I had gone through the same experience."
The Buttons say the money will mostly go to affording skills and vocational training with the aim for Marcus to one day live independently.
"I don't want to work necessarily for the money,” he says. “I just want to work so that I’m not in the house all day."
Marcus was 16 when his life went on pause. Now in his early 30s, he may finally get that relief for him to move forward. The bill is expected to pass the full House and Senate in the next two weeks. If approved, it will head to the governor's desk.