A 6-year-old girl with special needs died aboard a New Jersey school bus after the harness that secured her to a wheelchair choked her, according to law enforcement, and the bus aide is now facing charges.
The incident occurred Monday morning as the young girl was on her way to an extended school year program in Franklin Township, said Somerset County Prosecutor John McDonald and the town's public safety director, Quovella Maeweather.
The bus is owned by Montauk Transit Services in Somerset, where the girl went to the Claremont school four days a week.
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After the girl, identified as Fajr Atiya Williams, boarded the bus around 9 a.m. at her home, the wheelchair she utilized was secured in the back of the vehicle by the school bus monitor, 27-year-old Amanda Davila. But as the bus was on its route, a series of bumps in the road caused the girl to slump in her wheelchair — causing the four-point harness which secured her to the chair to become tight around her neck, preventing her from breathing, the county prosecutor said.
"She 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?" her father, Wali Williams, said Thursday.
The girl was born with a rare chromosome disorder known as Emanuel syndrome, which made her unable to speak or walk.
"She was the sweetest kid you'll ever meet. She had the sweetest little laugh, little dimples and she just endured so much in her six years," Namjah Nash Williams, her mother, said. "To be taken away from us in such a way, that had nothing to do with her condition."
As that was going on, Davila, of New Brunswick, was seated toward the front of the bus and was on her phone with earbuds in both ears, according to law enforcement. An investigation found that doing so was in violation of policies and procedures for school bus monitors.
The girl was found unresponsive, and officers who responded to the 911 call performed CPR. She was rushed to a nearby hospital's intensive care unit, where she was pronounced dead.
Davila was arrested Wednesday, charged with second-degree manslaughter and second-degree child endangerment. Attorney information for Davila was not immediately clear.
"This will never ever happen again if I have any say so," her mother said.
An investigation into the incident is ongoing. Anyone with information regarding what happened is asked to contact the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crimes Unit at (908) 231-7100 or the Franklin Township Police Department at (732) 873-5533.
