Toddler dies after accidentally being left inside car as mother taught at Bancroft school

Bancroft’s mayor says the community is grieving the tragic death of a 23-month-old toddler, who died after being accidentally left inside a hot car while his mother taught at a local high school.

The Bancroft Detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) confirmed last week that officers were called to a parking lot on Monck Road around 3:45 p.m. on June 23, where an infant was found without vital signs.

Bancroft Mayor Paul Jenkins tells CityNews that Everett Smith died despite several attempts to resuscitate him.

The mayor says the boy’s mother was a teacher at North Hastings High School and meant to drop Everett off at daycare in the morning but accidentally left him in the car.

“This is a very tragic, unfathomable accident,” Jenkins said.

“The mom who takes the child to daycare every day and goes on to teach at the high school, for whatever reason in her mind had done that, to come to discover at the end of the day that the child was found inside the car.”

Jenkins says staff members at the school tried to save the toddler upon discovering him inside the car. The temperature in Bancroft hit a high of 27 C on Thursday afternoon.

“Everybody could never imagine putting themselves in that situation, and the community is doing their best to support the family in any way,” Jenkins said.

“They’re all feeling the pain to try their best and help support the family.”

A spokesperson for North Hastings High School tells CityNews they’re aware of the “tragic events” that occurred last week.

“While we are not releasing a statement, we can confirm that supports are in place for students and staff, as is our usual process in such situations,” Kerry Donnell said in an email.

The OPP called Smith’s sudden death “a tragic situation,” noting that the investigation is still in its early stages and that additional information will be released at a later time.

Jenkins says he developed a relationship with the boy’s grandparents, noting he and his wife travelled with the family on multiple occasions.

“We took on an unofficial role of surrogate grandparents to try and help out, babysit whenever we could,” he said. “They’re just good people. They’re fun people to be around, really devoted parents.”

Jenkins said he and his wife had no grandchildren of their own, which helped form a strong bond with Smith and his brother.

“He was a baby born in the COVID-19 era, so at the beginning, there wasn’t much exposure to many kids,” he said.

“As things opened up, we were sort of the first strangers that he was involved with… it was interesting to develop that relationship with him and watch him evolve into this very sweet, very happy-go-lucky little boy.”

The mayor says everyone has to get into habits to remind ourselves of our daily tasks, noting how hard-working families take on demands that can be overwhelming.

“There are things we can look at in retrospect that maybe help prevent this from happening again, but going backwards, there [is nothing] that I could see would have changed the outcome.”