NJ bus monitor was on cellphone as 6-year-old special needs student was strangled by own seatbelt: authorities
A New Jersey school bus monitor has been charged with manslaughter in the heartbreaking death of a 6-year-old special-needs girl strangled by her wheelchair harness — while the monitor was allegedly on her cellphone.
The little girl, Faja Williams, was buckled in at the back of the bus by Amanda Davila, 27, for the Monday ride to an extended school year program in Franklin Township, the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office said.
During the trip, Davila was seated near the front of the vehicle “and was utilizing a cellular telephone while wearing ear bud headphone devices in both ears,” officials said.
The monitor “was in violation of policies and procedures,” they added.
“Upon responding to the location, officers administered CPR to the 6-year-old child,” the statement said. The youngster was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Davila was charged with second-degree manslaughter and second-degree endangering the welfare of a child.
“She did not deserve this, to be taken away from us in such a way that had nothing to do with her condition,” Faja’s devastated mom Namjah Nash told WABC.
Her daughter, who was nonverbal but could make sounds, suffered from a rare chromosome disability called Emanuel Syndrome, according to the news outlet.
“I just miss my baby so much and just seems very unreal to me at this time,” the grieving mom told CBS News.
Faja’s dad Wali Williams told WABC his little girl was “helpless, she can’t even take the harness off, she can’t take the seat belt off, the only thing she can do is move her arms.”
He blasted the monitor for the alleged inattentiveness.
“This lady is on the cellphone. [Faja]’s back there fighting for her life. She’s not even looking back,” he told CBS News.
The mom said she got the horrifying call about her daughter 45 minutes after the little girl was picked up at home.
“They told me she arrived nonresponsive and that they had to do CPR and that they were still performing it,” she told the outlet.
Nash said she then reached out to Davila.
“And I said, ‘What happened to my baby?’ And she said, ‘I don’t know,'” the mom told CBS News. “My sweet baby, she was 6 years old, and she was the sweetest kid you’ll ever meet.”
The devastated dad also slammed Davila’s bus company, Montauk Transit LLC of Somerset, and its employees.
“They need to be properly trained and equipped. Obviously, she wasn’t if she’s sitting on the bus with disabled kids and she’s on her cellphone with headphones on her head listening to, doing whatever she was doing while my daughter’s back there fighting,” Williams told the outlet.
“She doesn’t even have the decency to even look back,” he lamented.
Montauk Transit was using a new driver and monitor for the summer program at the unidentified school, according to WABC.
Montauk Transit President John Mensch told The Post that the company was “devastated” by the loss of the girl.
“We all extend our deepest condolences to the family and are grieving as a Company. All of our employees know that the safety of the children we transport is our top priority, which is why we are fully engaged in the law enforcement investigation and support any punishment that the justice system determines appropriate for the bus monitor who has been arrested,” he said in an emailed statement.
Franklin Township Schools Superintendent John Ravally also offered his condolences to the family.
“Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with this student’s family and friends. The matter is part of an ongoing investigation,” he said in a statement, referring all questions to the police.
“Board of Education, shame on you. Montauk transportation, shame on you. Montauk driver, Montauk aid, shame on you,” Nash told CBS News. “By the end of everything, everyone will know my baby’s name — Faja Atillah Williams. This will never, ever happen again.”
Davila has been held at the Somerset County Jail pending a detention hearing.
