FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP, N.J. — Authorities arrested a woman hired to ensure the safety of children traveling on a school bus after a 6-year-old girl with special needs died Monday on her way to a school program in Franklin Township, New Jersey.
Amanda Davila, 27, faces charges of second-degree manslaughter and second-degree endangering the welfare of a child. She was arrested Wednesday following the death of Fajr Wiliams, The New York Times reported.
Fajr was on her way to an extended school year program at Claremont Elementary School in Somerset on Monday morning when she died, according to the Suffolk County Prosecutors Office and WCBS-TV.
“I still feel like it’s unreal,” Fajr’s mother, Najmah Nash, told the Times. “Sometimes I feel that I’m OK and functioning, and then other times I just feel like I can barely hold on.”
Authorities said that after Fajr was picked up from her home on Monday morning, Davila secured her wheelchair in the back of the bus. A 4-point harness kept Fajr in the chair, officials said.
Davila did not notice when a series of bumps in the road later made Fajr slump in her seat, tightening the harness over her neck and ultimately blocking her airway, according to prosecutors. At the time, Davila was near the front of the bus using a cellphone and wearing earbuds, officials said.
Fajr’s family told WABC-TV that she was diagnosed with Emanuel Syndrome when she was 3 months old. The rare chromosomal disorder is characterized by stunted growth and development and learning problems, according to the National Institutes of Health. Symptoms typically appear shortly after birth.
Fajr’s father, Wali Williams, said his daughter was “helpless” to take the harness off herself and that “the only thing she can do is move her arms,” WABC reported. Nash told WCBS-TV that her daughter was nonverbal but able to make sounds.
“Is it that loud on the vehicle is it that loud?” Nash said, according to the news station. “She makes sounds. She has a voice.”
Police responded to a report of an unresponsive child at a school just after 9 a.m. Monday and attempted to give Fajr CPR. Nash told WCBS that she learned her daughter was unresponsive in a phone call about 45 minutes after her daughter was picked up from the family’s home.
Officials said Fajr was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
“She did not deserve this, to be taken away from us in such a way that had nothing to do with her condition,” Nash told WABC.
Nash described her daughter to WCBS as “the sweetest kid you’ll ever meet.” She told the Times that Fajr could “make baby coos and happy sounds,” and described her as a joyful kid.
In a letter sent Thursday to parents, Franklin Township Public School Superintendent John Ravally said, “Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with this student’s family and friends.”