A Bentonville couple is suing the school district and numerous others after their five-year-old son was shockingly left inside a school bus for hours last month.
Michella and Michael Carpenter filed the lawsuit on October 24 in the Circuit Court of Benton County, with their young boy also mentioned by name. Named defendants included the school board president Eric White, transportation director Jason Salmons, school board vice president Kelly Carlson, school district superintendent Debbie Jones, route system specialist Jodi Cunningham, several school board members, and an unnamed administrative employee.
According to court documents, the boy's typical morning routine was boarding his school bus at around 6:15 a.m. His parents then received a call almost five hours later, telling them that the kindergarten student somehow had not unloaded from the school bus. Officials told the parents the child was at the transportation yard.
No attempt made to contact 911 to check on the boy
The suit noted that on a typical day, the boy would already be at school at around 7 a.m., according to KNWA. The child's mom stated that she was confronted by Chief Operating Officer Tanya Sharp and School Superintendent Debbie Jones at the doors of the transportation facility, with the two women wanting to talk to her before entering the building.
Her main priority was her son, though. She found him in the restroom as he was being attended to by a school nurse. According to the lawsuit, the child's skin was red and blotchy while his face was still flushed half an hour after his rescue, a direct result of him feeling the heat inside the school bus.
The filing stated that the school made no attempts to contact 911 despite the district's Director of Nursing and the attending nurse suggesting them to do so. The boy's mom took her son to an emergency room to ensure he was fine.
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Lawsuit alleges negligence by school bus driver
According to court documents, a preliminary physical examination conducted by the hospital staff on the boy showed abnormal indications of dehydration in his blood work. Bubbles also appeared in the child's urine which had an unusual dark color and pungent odor.
The filing added that because of the boy's school bus incident, he is now exhibiting distrust for adults, not including his own parents. He also refuses to ride the bus to school and has had to be transported by his parents since the incident each day to school. The suit also noted that sleep has been hard to come by for the child because of the incident.
The lawsuit targets the school bus driver, alleging negligence on his part. The filing said the driver violated the school board's policy by not walking inside the bus from the front to the back to check if there was still a child there. That is done to ensure that all students have gotten off the school bus after each trip, according to the Arkansas Democrat Gazette.
