The family of a 5-year-old girl is demanding accountability after they say the child was trapped on an Arka Montessori daycare bus in Forney for about two hours in triple-digit heat. The girl’s family is not releasing her name. Her father, Sorie Tejan, said the family wants justice. “I nee d justice for my daughter. I need justice,” Tejan said. The family said the girl got on a bus Aug. 14 to go to Arka Montessori for after-school care. Their attorney, Michael Collier of The Collier Law Firm, said it was the girl’s first week of school and she fell asleep on the bus. “This was the first week of school for her, and just like everybody else, she was tired. She gets on the bus, she fell asleep on the bus. And then when she woke up, she couldn’t get off the bus,” Collier said. The family said no one realized something was wrong until the girl’s older sister arrived to pick her up and daycare staff said the 5-year-old was not there. “Her sister immediately called her mother. Mom came to the daycare and began searching for her daughter,” Collier said. The girl’s mother and sister searched inside the building before going outside and shouting her name, according to the family. “Her five-year-old daughter had heard her mother’s voice. And from inside that daycare bus, a little girl started banging on that bus door. That is how our mother found her. Think about that for a minute,” Collier said. The girl’s mother took her to a hospital, where she said her daughter was treated for dehydration. The family alleges the girl had been on the bus in triple-digit heat for about two hours. “Texas has specific requirements designed to prevent exactly this type of incident. When a childcare center transports children, every child is supposed to be accounted for,” Collier said. Forney police confirmed the incident and said one arrest has been made in the case. NBC 5 reached out to Arka Montessori several times but had not received a response. Three weeks after the incident, the girl’s loved ones said they are grateful she survived while calling for accountability and safeguards to prevent something similar from happening to another child. “I want to really give thanks and praise to God for saving the life of that little angel in our church,” the family’s pastor, the Rev. Silvanos Chapman, said. The girl’s mother, Tidankay Tejan, said she does not want another family to experience what hers did. “The only thing I can say is I don’t want this to happen to anybody, because the nightmare is just too much,” Tejan said. This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC DFW. AI tools helped convert the story into a digital article, and an NBC DFW journalist edited it again before publication. ...read more read less