Police have opened a death investigation after a 7-year-old Cincinnati Public Schools student with special needs was found unresponsive in her wheelchair on the bus ride home Wednesday, and her family says the bus sat outside their house for several minutes before anyone told them something was wrong.
Ngone Talla attended Roselawn Condon School, the district said. She was taken to Cincinnati Children's Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
The Hamilton County coroner's office said the girl had an extensive medical history. "She became unresponsive in her wheelchair on the bus, but she has extensive medical history including cerebral palsy. There was nothing traumatic and no injuries were related to the death," the office said. Coroner Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco told FOX19 the death appears to be natural, but that she is still looking into it. Her family says it still has questions.
They told WLWT they usually see the back doors of the bus open for the wheelchair ramp soon after it pulls up. On Wednesday, the bus sat outside for about 10 minutes and the doors did not open. When they went out, they were told Ngone was not responding.
"We went on the bus, and I see my sister unresponsive and lifeless. So, I'm there, I'm mad. I'm yelling in the bus. I'm like, okay, how did this happen?" said her sister, Marema Talla, 12, who often helped their mother get Ngone off the bus each afternoon. She told FOX19 that her sister "left the school fine."
Her father, Abdoul Talla, got a call that afternoon saying his daughter was not breathing.
"They say the bus was staying here like over 10, 15 minutes before they let them know," he said. "The bus driver came outside and he told them like, 'oh come look.' And they went inside the bus, and they see she was not breathing, she was not moving. And after that, that's why they call me, and I say call 911, and I call 911, me myself. And I drive up here and I see my daughter inside the bus and I was like 'it's over.'"
His question is about who was watching. "The driver and a second person, they're supposed to just watch carefully, the kids, because you cannot have these kids in this bus and you're not watching them. And it was really hot yesterday, and I don't know what's going on. I'm waiting for the investigation to let us know what's happened," he said.
Sources told FOX19 the girl "got stuck in the seatbelt" on the bus, and her sister told the station she found her with "her lips were cut and bleeding." The coroner has said there were no traumatic injuries. None of those accounts has been reconciled publicly, and investigators have not released a timeline of the ride.
The bus was run by First Student, a private contractor, and Cincinnati Public Schools said the monitor on board also worked for the company. "All of us at First Student are deeply saddened by the death of a student on one of our buses. Our thoughts and prayers are with the student's family, classmates, school community and all those impacted as they navigate this difficult time," the company said. It said it could not share more while the investigation is active.
"Our hearts are with her family and everyone who knew and loved her. This is an unimaginable loss for them and a heartbreaking day for the Roselawn Condon community," the district said. Its Crisis Response Unit is at the school supporting students and staff.
For students with disabilities, the bus ride is often part of the education a district is legally required to provide. Under federal special education law, transportation is a related service, and it can include specialized equipment such as lifts and adapted buses when a student's team decides it is needed. A student's plan can also call for an aide or monitor on the ride itself. Neither the district nor First Student has said what the monitor on Ngone's bus was assigned to do during the ride.
Roselawn Condon serves about 380 students from prekindergarten through ninth grade, according to federal enrollment data. It is one of 67 schools in Cincinnati Public Schools, which enrolls about 34,000 students.
Sources
WLWT: Family wants answers after a 7-year-old dies on school bus
FOX19: Family mourns CPS student who died on school bus
IDEA regulations, 34 CFR 300.34(c)(16): Transportation as a related service
Enrollment figures from allk12's analysis of National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Common Core of Data.
