Heartbreaking story of first grader dying after being left in car

Long (6 years old, living on Trung Hoa street, Cau Giay, Hanoi) was taken by his parents to the bus stop on Yen Hoa street at 6:55 a.m. on August 6. Immediately after, bus number 19 with license plate 29B-06956 driven by Phien and assistant named Quy picked up Long and took him to Gateway International School (89 Khuc Thua Du, Dich Vong, Cau Giay).

There were 13 students on the bus, Long sat in the last row of the 16-seat Transit. When getting off the bus, two young students crying a lot on their first day of school, so Ms. Quy helped take them to school and to the dining room, without checking or counting the number of students. The handover documents with the school when returning the children from Ms. Quy recorded that there were no problems.

In class, the homeroom teacher Nguyen Thi Thuy, in charge of class 1 Tokyo, took attendance but did not see student Long. During the entire time the bus finished taking students to school and returned to school at 4:10 p.m., driver Phien and the bus teacher Quy did not check the bus again.

That afternoon, when Ms. Quy was looking for the student to leave, she did not see Long so she called the parents to ask. At around 4:20 p.m., Ms. Quy opened the car door and saw him lying under the first seat, behind the driver's seat. Long was taken to the school's medical room for first aid, then transferred to E Hospital for emergency treatment.

Present at E Hospital on the evening of August 6, Mr. Le Van Son (victim's father) said: "When we arrived at school, we received evasive answers from the teachers. After my wife and I split up to look for our child, the school reported that our child had fallen asleep in the car and was being treated at E Hospital. When we arrived, he had died."

Gateway School has not responded to where the student was for the 9 hours (from 7am to 4pm). In the initial report, Ms. Tran Thi Hong Hanh, Chairwoman of the school's Board of Directors, said that she had asked the bus driver, the bus supervisor, and the bus service provider to come to the school to work. "The bus company confirmed that the student was forgotten on the bus," Ms. Hanh wrote in the report.

The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the school apologized to Mr. Le Van Son and his wife, affirming that the school takes full responsibility. The school is checking the security cameras and asking the teacher involved to report the entire incident.

The deceased child was the only son of Mr. Le Van Son and his wife. This was the child's second day at Gateway School.

Gateway International School has three campuses, one in Cau Giay (Hanoi), one in Tay Ho (Hanoi) and one in Hai Phong City. The school educates students from grades 1 to 9, including two programs in English and Vietnamese.

Students have a shuttle bus, a 16-seat Transit bus, each bus holds 11-12 students.