Usher Elementary mourns after student's school bus death

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By Aileen Dodd and Kristina Torres ktorres@ajc.com

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Terry Dorsey got out of his car when he noticed the commotion outside the school bus in front of him.

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A school bus passes a roadside memorial Wednesday morning,
along Hobart Drive in Atlanta where a 5-year-old boy died after being run over by his school bus Tuesday afternoon in the northwest Atlanta neighborhood.

John Spink, jspink@ajc.com A school bus passes a roadside memorial Wednesday morning, along Hobart Drive in Atlanta where a 5-year-old boy died after being run over by his school bus Tuesday afternoon in the northwest Atlanta neighborhood.

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Then he saw Everette Johnson, the child pressed under the bus’ right rear tire.

“I checked the boy and he was still breathing,” Dorsey said. “I said, ‘If you can hear me, open your eyes.’ And he did.”

Dorsey said he told children that had gathered around to get back on the bus. A mailman who had stopped at the intersection was on the phone with 911.

“I told him to stay with me and I started praying,” Dorsey said. “He had to have been in shock.”

Five-year-old Everette died later Tuesday at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite. The cause: blunt force trauma of the torso.

Sharon Denise Dale, the driver, faces vehicular homicide charges.

And 24 hours later, the shock remained on a rainy day at Atlanta Usher Elementary Wednesday, where the school mourned a kindergartner who was only doing what 26 million kids do each day — leaving a school bus.

Police say Everette was crushed by the front right tire as the boy stooped to pick up his books before making his way to his home in northwest Atlanta, near the intersection of Hobart Drive and Vanderbilt Court where the accident happened. He was pinned by the right rear tire before Dale could stop.

School officials say Dale lost sight of the child and believed it was safe to continue her route.

“[Dale] was very distraught,” Keith Bromery, spokesman for Atlanta Public Schools. “Her record was clean otherwise.”

Dale faces a vehicular homicide charge in the second degree, a misdemeanor offense punishable by up to a year in jail, a fine or both. She also faces charges for failure to use due regard and for violating school bus safety procedures, according to Officer Otis Redmond with Atlanta police.

She was placed on administrative leave, pending the outcome of investigations by police and the school system’s transportation department, Bromery said.

School bus fatalities are a rare occurrence but when a child is killed by a bus, the industry shares in the grief. On average, 14 students are killed each year in school bus accidents. According to Mike Martin, executive director of the National Association for Pupil Transportation, four of those 14 are struck by their own buses.

“It doesn’t happen often but, unfortunately, it does happen and it is a driver’s worst nightmare,” Martin said.

Drivers are trained make consistent eye contact with students once they unload, to count them when they get off the bus and look for them in the mirrors that cover the danger zones immediately around the vehicle.

“When they are the smaller, younger-aged kids,” Martin said, “they are the most difficult to see.”

Students at Usher Elementary, as others in the Atlanta school system, receive bus safety training within the first two weeks of school. Returning drivers also receive two hours of mandatory safety training from the state on new procedures.

A team of grief counselors and child psychologists reported to Usher Elementary at 6 a.m.Wednesday to help students cope with Everette’s death. Some sat in classrooms while others rode the school buses with kids, Bromery said.

“Prior to dismissal they paused for a moment of reflection,” Bromery said. “The principal said, ‘This is a sad day for all of us. We have lost one of our own.’ “

Staff writer Mike Morris and photographer John Spink contributed to this article.