School Bus.Photo:CBS New York/YouTube
CBS New York/YouTube
A school bus monitor in New Jersey has been charged in connection with the death of a 6-year-old girl who died on her way to school after a security harness on her wheelchair got caught around her neck.
Somerset County Prosecutor John P. McDonald said in a news release that Amanda Davila was arrested on Wednesday and charged with second-degree manslaughter and a charge for second-degree child endangerment.
It’s not immediately clear if Davila has entered pleas to the charges or retained an attorney.
The prosecutor’s office alleges that Davila, 27, was on her cell phone with earbuds in as the 6-year-old girl struggled to breathe behind her.
“A series of bumps in the road caused the 6-year-old to slump in her wheelchair seat making the 4-point harness which secured her to the chair to become tight around her neck ultimately blocking her airway,” the prosecutor’s office said.Namjah Nash, the girl’s mother, broke down in tears speaking withCBS New York, explaining that her daughter Faja was born with Emanuel syndrome, a rare chromosome disorder which made her unable to speak or walk.
Although Faja was non-verbal, she could still make noise, the mother explained. “She makes sounds,” Nash said. “She has a voice.”
Amanda Davila.Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office/Facebook
Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office/Facebook
Nash told the outlet she received a call 45 minutes after her daughter was picked up for the bus. “They told me she arrived nonresponsive and that they had to do CPR and that they were still performing it," the mother said.
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Wali Williams, Faja’s father, toldNBC New Yorkhis daughter “didn’t have oxygen in her brain for almost 40 minutes.”
“Do you understand the image that we got in our head of our daughter the last time that we seen her? What we had to go through?” he said.
Police arrived at the school and attempted to save Faja through CPR, according to the prosecutor’s office. “The child was transported to an area hospital’s intensive care unit and was subsequently pronounced deceased,” the office said.
“To be taken away from us in such a way, that had nothing to do with her condition,” Nash told NBC New York. “This will never ever happen again if I have any say so."
source: people.com
