BENTONVILLE -- The parents of a 5-year-old boy are suing the School District and its officials after he was left alone for hours on a school bus last month.
Gregory Payne and Travis Story are the attorneys for Michael and Michella Carpenter, the boy's parents, who are suing the district, along with Superintendent Debbie Jones; School Board members; Jason Salmons, the district's transportation director; Jodi Cunningham, a district route system specialist; and Jane Doe, an unknown employee with the district.
Cunningham was working in place of the regular bus driver, according to court documents.
Charles Carpenter, a kindergartner at Thomas Jefferson Elementary School, got on the bus just after 6 a.m. Sept. 19. His mother, Michella Carpenter, got a call from the district's Transportation Department a little after 11 a.m. telling her the boy was with them.
Charles was dehydrated, thirsty, sweaty and had urinated on himself when he was found, his mother said at the board's Sept. 20 meeting.
Michael Carpenter watched as his son got on the bus and was greeted by a woman who wasn't the regular driver and checked his name off the regular passenger list, according to the complaint.
Michella Carpenter received a call almost five hours later from Salmons that her son hadn't gotten off the bus and could be found at the transportation yard, according to the complaint.
The boy was later taken to the emergency room. There were indications of dehydration in his blood work and bubbles in his urine, according to the complaint.
The boy has also been impacted psychologically from the incident, according to the complaint. He exhibits distrust for adults other than his parents and refuses to ride the bus to school and has to be driven to school by his parents, according to the complaint. He also has had difficulty sleeping, according to the complaint.
The lawsuit claims the driver failed to follow policy and search the bus for children before leaving the vehicle. The plaintiffs are seeking unspecified monetary damages for the child's physical injuries and pain and the mental anguish he suffered from being left on the bus, according to the complaint.
The case is assigned to Benton County Circuit Judge Doug Schrantz.
Leslee Wright, a district spokeswoman, said the district was made aware of the lawsuit Tuesday morning and has referred it to legal counsel.
"We continue to support the Carpenter family as their child pursues his education in Bentonville Schools," Wright said.
Last month's incident spurred some parents to sign a petition that forced a special School Board meeting on the topic of bus safety. State law requires a school board hold a special meeting as soon as possible when a petition with signatures from 50 or more registered voters is properly filed.
The special meeting was scheduled to be held after the board's regular monthly meeting Tuesday; it did not start until after the newspaper's deadline Tuesday night.
The board did, however, discuss the subject during its regular meeting with Salmons, the transportation director.
Salmons reviewed some of the steps the district has taken to increase safety, including calling parents or guardians by 10 a.m. if their child has not been accounted for at school; requiring a second security check when a bus arrives at its final destination; updating all buses with Checkmate devices that require drivers to walk to the back of the bus and check for passengers in order to turn off a horn and lights; installing new cameras on each bus; and launching Bus Compass, a mobile application designed to send parents real-time alerts when their student boards and exits a bus.
The Bus Compass app is up and running. Parents must download it to receive phone notifications. The app accompanies the school's Transportant safety system, which includes turn-by-turn navigation for bus drivers, student tracking, upgraded cameras and unlimited Wi-Fi with child safety filters.
Feedback on the app from families has been "very positive," Salmons said, despite a few glitches.
Willie Cowgur, a board member, asked Jones if she felt comfortable that the current measures in place would be enough to avoid any future incidents like the one involving Charles.
"I do," Jones replied, adding that training and human responsibility are both critical factors, both of which were addressed immediately after the Sept. 19 incident.