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County prosecutors will be reviewing Wednesday’s case of a boy left in a hot van for more than an hour. It’s your time to beat them to the punch — would you charge staff members of a school for intellectually disabled kids?
Everyone’s so busy these days — it’s easy to lose track of kids. And they’re so small.
In this situation, a driver and aide affiliated with Quest Alliance of Phoenix picked up several people on Wednesday including a 6-year-old boy with Down Syndrome. They arrived back at Quest Alliance, 7602 West Indian School Road, just after 2 p.m., cops say. About an hour and 15 minutes later, the boy’s mom arrived for pick-up. The staff didn’t know where the kid was.
They found him a few minutes later still buckled into the seat of the van, which was in the parking lot with its windows rolled up. The outside temperature was about 100 degrees, a relatively cool day for August, but you know how it gets inside vehicles. Red-faced and lethargic, the boy was taken to a hospital and treated for dehydration. Authorities say he’ll be fine. His outraged mom is considering a civil lawsuit.
Turns out that Quest Alliance has been in trouble before. In 2007, a boy with autism walked away from another facility run by the company and drowned in a canal. The company’s license was revoked, then reinstated.
Police agree that Quest Alliance staff didn’t mean to leave the 6-year-old in the van.
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