PEORIA, AZ — A Peoria parent reached out to ABC15 after a bus had air conditioning issues on the first day, and her daughter came home from preschool experiencing symptoms of heat stress.
Monday marked the first day of developmental preschool for Sarah Yanes' 3-year-old daughter at Frontier Elementary in Peoria.
When school let out at 10:30 a.m. and her daughter wasn't home by 11 a.m., she immediately called the school.
“The school had no idea where she was either. They said she was on the bus, so I called transportation again, and the transportation said she's still at school. That's where the GPS said,” Yanes said.
Around 11:25 a.m., the district’s transportation department sent out a message saying “bus 151’s AC went out, we had to get a spare bus for replacement…”
Yanes’ daughter was not taken off the bus while they waited for a replacement.
When her daughter arrived nearly an hour and a half after school ended, Yanes immediately noticed that her daughter was in distress.
"She was soaked in sweat. Her shirt was all soaked in sweat. She was really hot, her face was bright red” Yanes said.
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The Peoria Unified School District told ABC15 that air was blowing on the bus, but at one point it wasn't as cold as normal, and that certain parts of the vehicle were cooler than others.
"I literally got a notification saying the AC was broken,” Yanes said. "So it's kind of like, which is it? Is the AC broken or was it running just not efficiently?”
The school district clarified why the child was not taken inside in a statement:
"The bus driver and bus assistant indicated that they were not so uncomfortable that they felt they needed to get off the bus while waiting for the replacement bus to arrive. The issue began at 10:45 a.m. and the parent communication was not until 11:25 a.m., so this is absolutely something we will work to improve. That bus needed to have the system reset, but is already back up and running and is scheduled for routes tomorrow morning.”
Yanes said she wants to see more accountability in protecting children in extreme heat.
"She's three. She can't speak for herself, and that's my biggest fear, and that was my biggest fear of her going on a bus,” Yanes said. “As a bus driver, you should take care of your child. That's what your job is."
The Peoria Police Department said they were aware of the complaint.
