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Wednesday, March 11, 2009 Bus driver, aide indicted on negligent child abuse chargeA former Belen substitute school bus driver and bus aide have been indicted on child abuse charges for allegedly forgetting about and leaving a 2-year-old girl unattended on a bus for more than an hour last year. A Valencia County grand jury indicted both 55-year-old Evelyn Olguin of Jarales and 67-year-old Farstino Delgado of Veguita on one count each of third-degree negligent child abuse. Delgado, who was employed as a bus aide, and Olguin, who was a substitute bus driver, allegedly forgot that the child was on the bus before parking it at the school district's bus compound. Neither of the two women has made their first court appearance to answer to the charges. Belen Consolidated Schools Superintendent Dr. Patricia Rael said neither Olguin nor Delgado is currently employed with the district, although she said that because Delgado was a substitute bus driver, she was never considered an actual employee. "The schools will cooperate (with law enforcement) fully," Rael said when asked for a comment regarding the indictment. A message left for Olguin by the News-Bulletin was not returned by press time, and a telephone number listed for Delgado has been disconnected. The incident took place on Aug. 21, when the two women allegedly left the pre-schooler on the bus, only to be discovered at the bus compound by a mechanic. According to a News-Bulletin article published in August, the mechanic was washing buses in the compound when he heard a child crying. The parents of the toddler said that the school bus picked up their daughter from in front of their home that morning to take her to a pre-school class at Dennis Chavez Elementary School. The child's father said that he had received a telephone call from the school district's transportation department, telling him that his daughter had been found strapped in her toddler seat on the bus inside the compound and was being taken to the school. The child's parents told the News-Bulletin that the girl had fallen asleep on the way to school, and after the other children were taken off the bus, the vehicle was driven back to the compound. The father said that school officials informed him that his daughter was left on the bus for more than one hour before she was discovered. Rael said that the district has a policy in place for buses to be inspected prior to drivers leaving the bus yard and again when they return. She also said that the district had immediately implemented a new system in which preschool teachers and their assistants go out to meet the bus drivers, aides and children as they arrive at school and check a roster to see who is on board and who is not. District Judge John Pope has been assigned to preside over both cases, which have been joined. An arraignment hearing has not yet been scheduled.
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