Family of 18-year-old struck by driver files notice of claim against Newark Board of Education
HASBROUCK HEIGHTS, N.J. -- The family of student at Arts High School has filed a notice of claim against the Newark Board of Education after she was struck by a hit-and-run driver.
The family says the 18-year-old was returning from a cheerleading trip last month when she was struck by driver as she exited a school bus, suffering catastrophic injuries.
CBS New York spoke to her family on Tuesday.
Chiara Jones had an incredible future ahead of her. She was college bound, with plans to study journalism.
But all of those dreams were dashed on Feb. 4.
The family's attorney said Jones was the first to get off of the school bus and cross in front of the bus, but she never made it to the other side. The attorney said she was struck by a driver that kept on going.
Mia'Jahn Burton, 33, was later arrested and charged with fourth-degree assault by auto and fleeing the scene of an accident. She is being detained as the case is pending the outcome of a grand jury.
"She just left her to die in the street," said Tomeika Hines, Jones' mother.
Jones' family said chaperones on the bus didn't have a plan for getting students off the bus.
Jones spent five weeks in the hospital and is now undergoing therapy, but while she does open her eyes, she is not able to communicate.
"She did suffer a really bad, traumatic brain injury and from a medical standpoint we just don't know the outcome, but we are hopeful. We are hopeful that she will come out of this and that she will make a full recovery," Hines said.
Jones' parents, represented by the Lynch Law Firm, says Arts High School failed to protect their daughter on busy Martin Luther King Boulevard.
"Coaches should have assisted the students across the streets, which wasn't done. The school bus driver, when he stopped, failed to turn on the red flashing lights and open up the stop sign, which would have alerted drivers such as the driver, who ultimately struck her, not to pass the bus," attorney James Lynch said.
We've been shown bus surveillance video; it appears to show the bus driver turning on the flashing lights and extending the stop arm after Jones was struck.
"She was a light. She was bright. She was smart. She had a bright future ahead of her," Hines added.
"There is no safe place to drop off children, or at least on that day, it wasn't," Lynch said.
"I can't imagine the trauma that she is going through," Hines said.
Her dad says a bedside moment makes him believe there's progress.
"I said, 'If you want to listen to some music'-- I rubbed her right hand, I say, 'Raise your right arm for Daddy,'" Jones' father, Stanley Jones, said. "Then she opened her eyes real big and just lifted up [her hand] and then she laid it back down, and I just grabbed the phone and played her some music."
The Newark School District and the Board of Education declined to comment, saying they don't comment on pending litigation. CBS New York also reached out to Essex County and the private bus company, but has not heard back.
