A school bus monitor has been charged with second degree manslaughter and second degree endangering the welfare of a child.
The monitor is facing charges after a 6 year old girl with special needs died following an incident on the bus ride in New Jersey, USA.
The girl who is wheelchair bound was on the bus to a local school in Franklin Township when she became unresponsive.
The Somerset County Prosecutor’s office said that the bumpy ride made her slump in her chair and the harness which secured her to the chair tightened around her neck ultimately strangling her.
The school bus monitor who secured the child to the chair with the harness was at the time busy utilizing her cellular phone while wearing earbud headphones.
“The investigation revealed that this was in violation of policies and procedures,” said the police.
The woman, Amanda Davila, 27 was from New Brunswick. She is currently being held in Somerset County Jail pending her detention hearing on July 25.
Davila was employed at Montauk Transit, a company based in Somerset, New Jersey.
The Somerset County Prosecutor’s office said they will not release the child’s name at the parent’s behest. An autopsy report is also being done.
The child’s parents told ABC station WABC that the girl was suffering from a rare chromosome disability called Emmanuel syndrome.
“She did not deserve this, to be taken away from us in such a way that had nothing to do with her condition,” said her mother Najmah Nash.
The Franklin Township Public Schools addressed the child’s death in a letter to the school community expressing their heartfelt condolences.
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