The mother of the six-month-old baby boy who was found dead on Friday after his cousin left him in the vehicle outside of the Florida school where she teaches spoke out to say it was a terrible accident.
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Chanda Larson, a seventh-grade math teacher at the school since 2014, had been caring for her cousin, Trenton Cason-Collins, for about six weeks, according to sheriff’s spokesman Gary Davidson.
“According to a statement that Chanda Larson gave to Sheriff’s investigators, she had dropped off her son at his school Friday morning and then brought Trenton’s sister to her bus stop”.
Wait said students at Deltona Middle are planning a moment of silence for the infant at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, September 22, before the start of the school day, in front of the school’s flagpole.
No criminal charges have been filed, and the case is being investigated only as a death.
Investigators said the teacher discovered the baby in the backseat when she returned to her vehicle in the afternoon.
Earlier, the Sheriff’s Office had said authorities found the child dead in his child auto seat; later reports revealed that when a deputy arrived on the scene, Trenton was lying facedown on the back seat of Larson’s SUV.
The boy’s parents, Alycyia Cason and Brian Collins, stopped by a makeshift memorial plushies, flowers and balloons left outside the school for their son Monday left.
“They just wanted an opportunity to say a few things because obviously they are all feeling something”, said Nancy Wait of Volusia County Schools. “A bystander came to her aid and attempted to resuscitate Trenton, but when the efforts failed, Trenton was placed on the back seat in the position he was found when deputies arrived”.
“There’s going to be negativity, people are skeptical”, Cason said. The Department of Children and Family Services tells FOX 35 they were never involved in any investigations involving the baby and had nothing to do with the baby being in Laron’s Care. “We appreciate the ones that are there for us”. “I’ve got someone doing CPR”, the woman said.
“I always said he came with an easy button”, Cason said.
Volusia County Schools tells FOX 35 that Larson has worked for the district for a total of 5-and-a-half years.
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“Our deepest sympathy goes out to the family and the Deltona Middle School community”. We will stand by the family with love and compassion.
