New Jersey student with special needs dies after school bus ride, leading bus monitor to be charged with manslaughter

By Sara Smart, CNN

(CNN) — A 6-year-old girl with special needs died in New Jersey this week after her wheelchair harness constricted her breathing while she was riding a school bus, leading prosecutors to charge the bus monitor with manslaughter, officials said.

Authorities identified the child on Friday as Fajr Atiya Williams of Franklin Township, according to a statement from the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office. Franklin Township is about 30 miles southwest of Newark, New Jersey.

Fajr was picked up from her home and was being transported to Claremont Elementary School in Franklin Park on Monday, the prosecutor’s office said.

An investigation revealed that the bus monitor, 27-year-old Amanda Davila, secured the child in her wheelchair, prosecutors said.

During the bus ride, a series of bumps in the road caused Fajr to “slump in her wheelchair seat,” which led the harness securing her to the chair to become tight around her neck, eventually blocking her airway, the prosecutor’s office said.

Davila was seated toward the front of the bus, using her cellphone with headphones in both ears, during this time, according to the office. “The investigation revealed that this was in violation of policies and procedures,” it said.

The Franklin Township Police Department responded to a local school around 9 a.m. after receiving a call about an unresponsive juvenile, according to prosecutors. Officers performed CPR on the child and she was transported to a hospital’s intensive care unit, where she was pronounced dead, authorities said.

Davila was placed under arrest on Wednesday and charged with second-degree manslaughter and second-degree endangering the welfare of a child, prosecutors said.

Davila is being held in Somerset County Jail and is awaiting a detention hearing. CNN has been unable to determine if she has retained an attorney at this time.

Montauk Transit Services, the school bus company that operated the bus, said in a statement to CNN, “All of our employees know that the safety of 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.”

The investigation is ongoing as authorities await findings from the New Jersey Northern Regional Medical Examiner’s Office, the prosecutor’s office said Friday.

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CNN’s Taso Stefanidis and Ashley R. Williams contributed to this report.