5-year-old left alone for 2 hours on freezing school bus
By Suzanne Le Mignot
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ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Illinois (WBBM) — A 5-year-old girl was left alone for about two hours inside a school bus while temperatures plummeted outside on Tuesday.
Around 3:45 p.m. Tuesday, a bus from KinderCare in Arlington Heights picked up a 5-year-old girl named Dior after school to take her to daycare.
But when Dior’s mom went to pick her up around 6 p.m., daycare workers said they never saw the girl.
The mom then rushed back to the bus, opened the emergency door, and found her daughter limp and cold to the touch.
The temperature at the time was about 14 degrees.
“It took hours for her to start come to be. Her oxygen was low, heart rate was low,” said Miwiya, “Fifteen, 30 minutes, she could have died.”
A 911 call was made by someone at KinderCare. Paramedics responded, and Dior was conscious when she was taken to Northwest Community Hospital. The 5-year-old was in fair condition and vital signs were in the normal range.
Miwiya said his daughter is recovering, but she is afraid of getting back on the bus now.
“Like, I don’t understand,” said Dior’s father, Wamui Miwiya. “I was infuriated, I was enraged, and everything like that.”
KinderCare issued a statement that said in part:
“We have strict safety protocols specific to bus safety that should have prevented this kind of situation. Unfortunately, those protocols were not followed. As a result, the staff member involved, and our center director, are both currently out of our center on administrative leave while we work with our agency partners to investigate. We reported this issue to state licensing and are working with them and the police to determine what happened and what can be done to prevent this from happening again.”
The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services oversees daycare centers in the state. DCFS administrative rules say school bus drivers “shall inspect the vehicle after each use to assure that no child is left in the vehicle.”
A spokesperson said DCFS is investigating what happened. Arlington Heights police said a detective is assigned to the case. It’s not clear if charges will be filed.
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