Conroe ISD north of Houston is mourning the death of a 6-year-old girl who was hit and killed by her school bus while running after it.
Officers at Conroe Police Department responded to the scene on a residential street at approximately 7:30 a.m. local time on Tuesday. Upon arrival, according to a police report issued to the media, officers were informed a child had been struck by the school bus. The child was reportedly breathing but unconscious.
The student, who local media reports identified as Sophia, reportedly lived in the area. Police said dashcam video footage from the school bus showed the girl running in front of the bus as it was departing the pick-up location.
Local media outlets reported the school bus was late, so Sophia and her father had walked back to their home from the bus stop, where they had been waiting. While her father took the family’s newborn baby inside, Sophia saw the bus arrive and ran toward it.
Sophia was transported to Texas Children’s Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
“The Conroe Police Department sends prayers to the family, witnesses and emergency responders for this tragedy,” Jeff Christy, chief of police stated in the release. “The crash is still under investigation at the time of this release.”
The Conroe Independent School District’s board of trustees meeting that evening started with a prayer. “Lord, God we come to you at this time of great shock and grief and ask you [to] shed your peace and comfort to all that is morning this death.”
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Wednesday’s regular live school district update posted on YouTube began with Superintendent Dr. Curtis Null initiating a moment of silence in honor of Sophia.
“Yesterday was the most tragic day possible in Conroe ISD,” Null stated. “Hearts are broken, a family is broken, the Conroe ISD family hearts ache for our neighbors. This is a family that has experienced a pain that none of us as parents would want to feel.”
He continued, “There is nothing that we can say or do that can fix that, but I know as a community that cares like we do, we want to acknowledge and let the family and everyone that is hurting know that we love you. And we wish that we could do something to take away the pain, even though we can’t. … [Let’s] take a moment together as a community and wrap our arms around this family.”
A GoFundMe page organized for Sophia states that she “was a very outgoing, beautiful, playful, full of energy 6-year-old.”
