It was -25 C without the windchill when Celine Tawachi woke up alone on an empty school bus the morning of Feb. 4.
When her cries for help went unanswered, the eight-year-old worked frantically to find her way out, growing colder and more frantic as the minutes passed.
“I was trying to open the emergency exit, but I couldn’t, I didn’t know how,” Celine said. “I was shaking in fear.”
“My feet was freezing, my hand was freezing.”
Celine started kicking at the front door, and in time, opened it up just enough to squeeze out and find herself surrounded by row upon row of empty buses.
“I was yelling, ‘Help, help.’ No one was hearing me.”
Marwan Tawachi, Celine’s father, said he put his daughter on the school bus that morning at 7:45 a.m.
At 9:30 a.m., he got an automated call that she had been marked absent – a simple mistake, he thought.
“I start calling the school about seven, eight, nine times. Nobody answer,” Marwan said. “Finally, around 10 o’clock, I received a phone call from Glengarry School. It was the principal.”
Marwan was told his daughter had fallen asleep and missed the drop off at school. While bus drivers are required to check buses before leaving, this one didn’t.
“He parked his bus, he never checked if somebody (was) there or any stuff – just closed the door, shut off the bus and went home,” Marwan said.
“She’s screaming, ‘Help, help!’ Nobody answered, and she’s crying and running and carrying her backpack,” Marwan said.
A woman driving another bus found Celine, and the third-grader was eventually dropped off at school.
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It was more than two hours from when Marwan dropped his daughter off to when he was called to say she’d been found. He still doesn’t know how long she spent trapped on the bus or alone in the yard.
He said he’s requested a report from Golden Arrow, but has not yet received one.
Golden Arrow confirmed to CTV News Edmonton that a student was left behind on Feb. 4, for what it called a “short period” after the bus finished drop-off.
“We have a strict policy in place where school bus drivers are required to do a safety check after a route is completed and students have been dropped off at school to ensure no one is left on the bus,” president Zachary Bartel.
“In this instance, the driver did not follow policy and has now been released from their duties and is no longer employed by Golden Arrow.”
Glengarry School, which Celine attends, called the incident “unacceptable and deeply concerning,” and confirmed the driver responsible no longer works within Edmonton Public Schools.
With files from CTV News Edmonton’s David Ewasuk
