A Somerset County, N.J., jury has found the school bus aide whose neglect of 6-year-old Fajr Atiya Williams played a part in the child’s death guilty of second-degree and endangering the welfare of a child.
The bus aide, Amanda Davila, was not attending to the disabled, wheelchair-bound Williams when a safety harness choked the child to death during a school bus ride on July 17, 2023.
Williams was attending an extended school program at Franklin Township’s Claremont Elementary School. The child was nonverbal and had a chromosomal disorder known as Emanuel syndrome (Emanuel Syndrome Awareness; ESA), yet cameras in the bus captured Williams fighting for her life in the back of the bus while Davila was seated ahead of her, earbuds in, perusing apps on her cellphone.
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Video footage from the bus demonstrated that Davila made sure Williams was tied into her seat but “failed to properly anchor the victim’s wheelchair to the floor of the bus and failed to use the shoulder and lap belt,” the Somerset County Prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
Instead of sitting next to Williams for the 30-minute bus ride, as was protocol, Davila sat in a seat one row ahead of Williams and with her back to Williams as the bus proceeded along occasionally bumpy roads to Claremont Elementary School.
The aide’s attention was directed to her cellphone, to which she had attached earbuds. Records show that during the bus ride, Davila sent text messages, listened to Apple music, and visited the Instagram app.
In her six-plus years of safety training, Davila had been advised that use of a cellphone and earbuds was against the rules, the Somerset County Prosecutor’s office pointed out. She was supposed to supervise any children she was caring for.
Last year, Fajr’s now-divorced parents, Najmah Nash and Wali Williams, won a $5 million lawsuit against Montauk Transit, the transit company that Davila worked for.
Davila is scheduled to face sentencing for her guilty verdict this coming Mar. 7, but there is currently some question about whether the judgment against her will stand, since the Somerset County jury that ruled in her case had not been aware of the $5 million judgment against Montauk Transit.