A 4-year-old Dallas girl was left on a hot bus until the end of the school day, despite district policies requiring drivers to check the buses for students before disembarking.
Araiya Pruitt, who is non-verbal and autistic, was left on a Dallas Independent School District bus in 90-degree heat for seven hours.
On Tuesday morning, Araiya was picked up to be taken to Clinton P. Russell Elementary School, where she attended as a preschool student. However, by the end of the school day, Araiya’s mother received a call from Russell Elementary administrators saying her daughter never made it to school.
“[She was] on the other line with me after that, hysterical, saying that our daughter never made it to school, saying that our daughter was left in the school bus for seven hours,” the girl’s father, Robert Pruitt, told Fox 4 News.
In temperatures reaching 90 degrees, Araiya was left at the bus depot in Lancaster. Pruitt says she was most likely left because she is non-verbal.
“She is autistic, she is non-verbal, she couldn’t say anything and bring attention to herself. It’s probably part of the reason she was left,” said Pruitt.
Towards the end of the school day, another bus driver preparing for the afternoon route discovered the young girl.
Araiya was transported to the hospital and received fluids for symptoms of dehydration. She was not released until the next morning.
Bus drivers in Dallas ISD are responsible for doing a sweep of the buses before they end their shifts.
“Too many times we see these stories of kids left unattended on buses,” said Pruitt. “God saved my daughter, not you guys. God is the reason my daughter is here, but it was supposed to be you guys. I put her in your care.”
Video footage seen by the parents also showed that the bus driver made two stops before ending his route to the Lancaster bus depot.
“He stopped at a Valero gas station and got out and left her in the bus,” Araiya’s mother Keturah Crockett told NBC 5 News. “Then he stopped at a McDonald’s and again left her on the bus.”
Crockett says that the district informed her that the bus driver’s employment was terminated and that a criminal investigation is being conducted for possible child endangerment charges.
Dallas ISD released a statement to Fox 4 News, expressing that they were appalled by the incident.
“Student safety is our highest priority. We are appalled about the incident involving a pre-K student who remained on a bus yesterday. We are grateful the student is well and are conducting a thorough investigation. Dallas ISD is committed to the safety and well-being of all our students,” read the statement.
Parent advocate for Texas Education 911, Aileen Blachowski, told Texas Scorecard that it’s time for there to be an inspector general for education to hold school employees accountable.
“Parents expect that their children are in the care of responsible, trusted adults at school, on the way to school, and during school-sponsored events. Based on TEA’s own school employee misconduct data, this is increasingly not the case. Leaving a toddler on a hot school bus for seven hours is child endangerment. If anyone outside a school did that, we’d go to jail or otherwise ‘pay’ for the damages caused by our negligence. It’s time we hold school employees to the same standard. For the past 30 years, the law has shielded school employees from having to take responsibility for their actions (Texas Tort Claims Act). Students are being harmed at school at an alarming rate. We need an Inspector General for Education that moves investigations for potential criminal actions OUT of the ISDs’ hands and turns it over to an independent third party,” explained Blachowski. “It’s also time to ditch the two-tiered system of justice that school employees enjoy—if a school employee physically or sexually harms a student, the school and employee should not be immune from liability.”
“We’ll be helping parents push for both of these solutions for Texas public school families in the next legislative session,” she added.
Texas Scorecard reached out to Dallas ISD to confirm that the bus driver had been fired but did not receive a response by publication.
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