A special needs student died Friday afternoon in Whittier, Cal. after he was left behind on a hot school bus.
According to the Whittier Daily News, the 19-year-old student was found in a state of “full arrest” on the bus at around 4:30 p.m. local time. That was more than 30 minutes after the bus finished making its rounds and had been parked in the Whittier Union High School bus depot.
“The bus company, Pupil Transportation (Cooperative), driver received a call from dispatch that a student was missing,” said Whittier police officer Brad White, according to the Daily News. “He (returned) to his bus and that’s where he found this young man unresponsive.”
The Pupil Transportation Cooperative is contracted to provide busing services for the Whittier school district and others in southeast Los Angels County.
According to The Los Angeles Times, the student was found slumped in the aisle of the school bus by the bus driver. The driver had been contacted by police after the student’s mother called to say her son was missing.
According to a police statement, officers who arrived at the scene saw several bus drivers performing CPR on the student.
“Officers took over in an attempt to revive the adult male, but their attempts were unsuccessful. The Los Angeles County Fire Department arrived on scene shortly after and pronounced his death at 4:33 p.m.,” according to the statement.
The police are treating the incident as a “suspicious death.” The student had no known medical conditions, though temperatures reached 95 degrees in Whittier on Friday.
“This tragedy has devastated all of us,” Whittier school superintendent Sandy Thorstenson, said in a statement.
“We are still gathering information about what happened. The district is calling for a speedy and thorough investigation to determine how something like this could happen,” Thorstenson said, adding that the school district will provide counseling services to the student’s family, as well as students and staff.