A suburban father is suing a daycare after his 5-year-old daughter was left on a school bus for several hours in sub-freezing weather last week.
According to Arlington Heights police, the 5-year-old girl was left on a bus for several hours after it returned to a KinderCare location from a suburban elementary school. She was found by a concerned teacher, and was sleeping on the bus when she was discovered.
Now Wamui Mwiya, the girl’s father, has filed a lawsuit against KinderCare, and is expressing his anger at how the situation unfolded.
“It’s like, how can you lose a child? It’s not a coat. It’s not a jacket. It’s a whole human being,” he said.
Mwiya dropped his daughter Dior off at a KinderCare location at approximately 6 a.m. on Jan. 14, and from there she was transported to Forest View Elementary for her kindergarten class.
It was on the bus back that Dior was apparently left, and it took between two and three hours for teachers to realize that she wasn’t in the daycare.
At that point, Wamui received a phone call from the director of the daycare.
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“She calls and tells me that I did not drop off my daughter at school that day, that morning, and I just lost it,” he said.
Wamui said it was not true, and it was quickly determined his daughter had been left on the bus back from school for approximately two or three hours, with the temperature a frigid 14 degrees outside.
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Dior was taken to an area hospital, but fortunately did not suffer any injuries. She did however suffer trauma from the incident, Wamui said, and that’s part of the reason he filed his lawsuit.
“I don’t know how she’s doing, honestly,” he said. “I just know she’s back at school, and I hope she’s okay.”
KinderCare declined comment on the story due to the pending nature of the litigation. They did issue a statement on the day after the incident.
“Nothing is more important to us than the safety of the children in our care. 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.”
Attorneys representing Wamui said they’re trying to get to the bottom of how the situation unfolded.
“After filing this lawsuit, we will be investigating this claim, trying to figure out what really happened,” attorney Jake Esp told NBC Chicago.
Wamui also said that he’s getting justice for his daughter, and trying to prevent something similar from happening to any other child.
“I almost lost my kid, and I just want everybody to know that that’s what they did to me,” Wamui said. “So that’s what I want. I want justice for Dior.”