Kerena Holsgrove, 39, of Stonehouse Drive, who no longer works at the school, says she was set upon when she refused to let the youngster get off the school bus until his father arrived to greet him.

She claimed the pupil, who had a history of violence towards staff, hit her with his bag before kicking and punching her as she tried to restrain him.

The following day Miss Holsgrove was supervising pupils on the bus going to Torfield School in Croft Road, and was allegedly attacked by the same youngster as he got on the vehicle.

Her shoulder was injured in the melee and she claims the ongoing problems this caused has made it difficult for her to get work.

She has lodged a claim with East Sussex County Council for compensation up to £100,000 over the 2004 incident, claiming they should have suspended or expelled the boy after the first attack.

The teaching assistant also claims they placed her in a dangerous working environment and failed to give her adequate training to deal with the situation.

But she has been refused compensation by her employers who say the boy "rarely displayed physical aggression" at the time of the incident.

It also claims the school, for children with complex learning difficulties, had a "Behavioural Management Plan" for the boy which assessed the risk to others.

Although it acknowledged Miss Holsgrove did report the first incident, the council deny the details of the alleged attack and deny she said she was scared to do the school run with the boy the next day.

It says her training was adequate and that it was "reasonable and responsible practice" to let the boy travel to school on the bus the day after the first alleged attack.

In official court papers Miss Holsgrove's claim says: "One of the pupils at the school (to be known as "Pupil A"] had a longstanding history of disruptive, violent and aggressive behaviour including assaults on staff.

"Despite this well-established history, Pupil A was allowed to remain at Torfield School, was not suspended and continued to present a known physical risk to those employed by the school.

"On the 8th July 2004, in the course of her employment, the claimant was present on a school bus supervising pupils on their journey from school to home at the end of the day.

"When it came to the stop at which Pupil A should have alighted the claimant wanted to keep Pupil A on the bus until his father attended or it had been confirmed it was alright for him to leave the bus before his father arrived.

"Pupil A became physically aggressive and finally assaulted the claimant causing injury."

The claim says Miss Holsgrove then reported the alleged assault to head teacher Carol McCarthy and was told to collect the pupil on the bus the following day as usual.

It adds: "Pupil A got on the bus and was verbally aggressive and threatening towards the claimant who was thereby assaulted and suffered injury."

The claim says she suffered multiple injuries including to the left shoulder that has left her "permanently disadvantaged" on the labour market, as well as "psychiatric injury".

In court documents the council says: "The pupil had been prone to aggressive outbursts when he first came to the school in 2001.

"The pupil had made very good progress at the school such that at the material time he rarely displayed physical aggression."

The case has been lodged at Hastings County Court and unless a settlement is reached between the two parties a trial is expected to take place later in the year.