A Toronto mother is calling for increased safety protocols after her five-year-old daughter was left with a large forehead bump and a bloody nose from being pushed off a school bus.
Halima Sheikh told CTV Toronto that she witnessed her daughter Nadia fall out of the bus when she was waiting to pick her up after school at a stop on Falstaff Avenue in North York on Thursday.
“When it was her turn to get off the bus, I saw that she flew off the bus,” Sheikh said on Monday. “I asked, ‘What happened?’ and she said, ‘I felt somebody’s hand pushing me.’”
Nadia fell onto the pavement and hit her head, her mother said. In a photo posted online by the little girl’s cousin, Nadia can be seen with a large bump on her forehead and a bloody nose.
In a statement issued on Monday, the Toronto District School Board said they’re investigating the alleged incident.
Sheikh questioned why it took school officials so long to react.
“The vice-principal did not report this to the principal and he did not report it in the book as an injury,” she said. “My daughter was injured.”
The principal of Maple Leaf Public School didn’t know about what happened until Monday morning because Friday was a PA day, the TDSB said.
Both the school and the bus company were notified about the incident and an injury report was created, the board confirmed.
On Tuesday, the TDSB told CTV Toronto that it was a Grade 5 student who allegedly pushed the girl off the bus, but they didn’t say if that student was facing any disciplinary action.
Nadia’s mother is calling for more safety protocols for bus drivers.
“I picked her up and I looked at the driver and he just looked away like he didn’t care,” Sheikh said.
Peter Kim, the bus driver at the time, told CTV Toronto on Monday that he wasn’t aware of what happened and that he would have pulled the bus over and reported the incident had he known about it.
Sheikh said her daughter was too afraid to board the school bus on Monday morning and stayed home instead.
With a report from CTV Toronto’s Tracy Tong
