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Main: Amanda Davila and Fajr Williams riding the bus on July 17, 2023 (WCBS). Inset: Davila (Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office).
A school bus monitor in New Jersey, 28, has been sentenced to prison for neglecting her duty to check on a 6-year-old girl under her care who unfortunately died after being strangled by the safety harness of her wheelchair during transit to school.
The jury in Somerset County reached a verdict on Monday, finding Amanda Davila guilty of endangering the welfare of a child in the tragic death of Fajr Williams. Fajr, who had a rare chromosomal disorder known as Emanuel syndrome, was unable to communicate verbally and relied on a wheelchair for mobility.
Jurors let Davila off on the more serious charges, finding her not guilty on one count each of aggravated manslaughter and reckless manslaughter.
Throughout the trial, prosecutors presented surveillance footage from inside the bus, showing Fajr gradually slumping in her wheelchair due to the tightening harness. Despite being only a seat away, Davila was engrossed in her phone and wearing headphones, neglecting to monitor the well-being of the child entrusted to her.
Davila’s reportedly testified last week where she conceded that she made a mistake by not turning to check on Fajr and apologized to the victim’s family.
“I was scrolling through apps to go onto Instagram and texting,” Davila reportedly testified last week.
However, she also claimed that the child’s family sent her on the bus strapped into her wheelchair harness incorrectly.
“It’s the parent’s responsibility to buckle the top and bottom parts,” Davila’s defense attorney Michael Policastro reportedly said after Monday’s verdict. “The parents, I guess she delegated to her 14-year-old daughter that day, did put the top part. She didn’t put the bottom, and that’s why the little girl slipped. If that bottom harness was fastened, it wouldn’t have happened.”
Fajr’s mother, Najmah Nash, pushed back on Davila’s theory about what led to her daughter’s death.
“It was her fault for not doing her job,” Nash said on Monday. “We did our job. We got my baby to the bus. She was strapped in, and that’s a fact. So, any description, or any disbelief in that, is shame on you.”
As Law&Crime previously reported, officers with the Franklin Township Police Department at about 9:04 a.m. on Monday, July 17, 2023, responded to an emergency call at the Claremont School in the 100 block of Claremont Road regarding a report of an unresponsive 6-year-old girl. Upon arriving at the scene, first responders located the child and began performing CPR.
Emergency Medical Services personnel transported the child to a local hospital’s intensive care unit where doctors pronounced her dead. Detectives from the Franklin Township Police Department along with detectives from the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crimes Unit were dispatched to the scene and took over the case.
Investigators say they learned the victim was attending the school’s extended-year program and was transported to and from the facility in a transit school bus. Upon entering the bus on the morning of July 17, 2023, the victim’s wheelchair was secured in the rear of the bus with a four-point harness by Davila, who was the monitor assigned to that particular bus, prosecutors say.
“During the transport, a series of bumps in the road caused the 6-year-old to slump in her wheelchair seat making the 4-point harness which secured her to the chair to become tight around her neck ultimately blocking her airway,” a news release from multiple agencies said. “During the ride, the school bus monitor, Amanda Davila was seated towards the front of the bus and was utilizing a cellular telephone while wearing ear bud headphone devices in both ears. The investigation revealed that this was in violation of policies and procedures.”
