Parents of special needs teen who died address Polk school board

LAKELAND (FOX 13) - For the first time, the parents of Terissa Gautney stood in front of Polk County School Board members, opening up about the pain of the loss of their daughter on a Polk County school bus.  

February 28 is a day that forever changed their lives.

“It is like a bad dream I can’t wake up from,” said David Gautney, Terissa’s father.

“It has been very tough but I have to do something so it doesn’t happen again. Terissa would want that,” her mother, Denise Williams said.

That morning, the 14-year-old special needs student suffered a medical episode on the bus. Her parents say her head titled back, causing her to suffocate.

Video from inside the bus shows a panicked driver and attendant who seemed unsure of what to do while the girl struggled. She died days later in the hospital. 

Now her parents are calling for changes, like improved training for bus drivers and dispatch, a new radio system, and a panic button on the bus.

“They need to know how to take a child out of a wheelchair. They didn’t even know how to do that,” Williams said.

“I just want to ask them, if it was your kid, would you do the same thing or just stand there and do nothing?” said Gautney.

Her parents vow to keep up the fight -- in her memory.

“I want them to know we're not going to let this go. We're going to take this as far as we can so no other child has to go through this,” said Gautney.