Mom finds her baby alone, locked inside RI daycare

[Kadie]

Mom finds her baby alone, locked inside RI daycare

Thursday, August 13, 2009

(08-13) 09:48 PDT Johnston, R.I. (AP) --

A 9-month-old baby was left alone at a locked Rhode Island daycare center for nearly an hour when workers shut the place down for the night, apparently forgetting the child was there.

The baby's mother, Julia Castillo, says she came to pick up her son Monday at the My Special Place Early Learning Center in Johnston, only to find the center locked and no one around. A neighbor heard her yelling and banging on the door and helped her get inside, where she found her baby boy crying in a crib.

The day care owner, Jessica Faiola, says the child's mother did not sign the baby in when she dropped him off. She calls it a "crazy mistake" and doesn't want to point fingers.

more...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/08/13/national/a092448D23.DTL&tsp=1

[Vinca]

1. The day care owner doesn't want to point fingers??? Huh???

She should be on her knees begging that mom not to sue the pants off her.

[TommyO]

2. All of the fingers would be pointing at her!

[Quantess]

3. It was worse when the day care driver

left a baby to die in the hot van.

[Soylent Brice]

4. FUCT. UP.

[ejpoeta]

5. sounds like it's time to find a new daycare. of course it MUST be the mother's fault...

I mean, how could anyone be expected to notice a baby still in the center if the mother didn't sign him/her in!!!! Give me a break!!!

[SoCalDem]

6. What did they think? was that a free-range baby that just wandered in?

Loooooony.

[gatorboy]

7. "Sorry baby. You weren't signed in so you don't exist"

Did the baby climb into the crib on it's own or something? :crazy:

[Tumbulu]

8. Why did the mom come to get the child until after the center had closed?

how come no one can imagine that the people working at a child care center could make a mistake especially if their check off system uses names on a list and the parent did not sign the child up that day. These people are most likely overworked and underpaid.

Don't attack me, just tell me why there is no sympathy for humans being tired and making mistakes- all of them, parents and workers- and talk of lawsuits. If the place is sued, will it close and then all the parents have to find a new place for their children to stay and all the employees have to find new jobs....can't we go beyond blame and try to fix problems? Like why have we allowed our society to degenerate to the point where babies are raised as a commodity, and parents are just cogs in wheel, everyone pushed and pushed until hearts, bodies and souls are all broken up? So that someone can make profits for their shareholders?

[SoCalDem]

11. A simple pass through the rooms & a peek into playpens & beds should do it

Most businesses have a "last person out" policy of some sort, just to do a final check..

[gkhouston]

14. Usually someone does that while they're sanitizing the toys.... n/t

[gkhouston]

12. Perhaps they closed early because they thought all the kids had gone home? n/t

[JerseygirlCT]

13. I don't think there's any room for those kind of mistakes when

you work in that field.

Depending on a checklist? Do they not interact with the children all day long? Was this child being ignored throughout the day as well as at closing time then?

There are certain professions where you simply cannot allow these mistakes.

[gatorboy]

16. Excellent point.

[redqueen]

9. Idiocracy.

Why walk around and actually check the rooms when you can just look at a checklist?

Lazy idiots... they're everywhere.

[JerseygirlCT]

10. The OWNER doesn't want to point fingers?

Say what?

[gatorboy]

15. Here's a review I found for the place:

May 21, 2009
by Guest68411

This center is amazing! The staff is so nice and the school is so clean. My children have learned so much. I can go to work with peace of mind , I have 2 children that attend My Special Place, one in the infant room & one in the preschool class. This center is amazing! The staff is so nice and the school is so clean. My children have learned so much. I can go to work with peace of mind , knowing my kid's are well cared for & loved!

Hahahahaha!

[Fla Dem]

17. Not signed in? Was he invisible all day? Or because the Mom didn't

sign the child in, he doesn't exist?

No one in that day care realize one baby had not been picked up when they turned off the lights and locked the door behind them. Very, very strange. Also strange, that the one parent who did no sign their baby in, was obviously the last parent to pick their child up. What a coincidence.

[PA Democrat]

19. Hope they didn't neglect to feed him since he wasn't "signed in".

[LisaM]

18. I worked in a daycare and this is not as bizarre as it sounds

Daycares are busy places and they need rules to function. I'm not saying the workers didn't make mistakes - they obviously did - but it sounds as if the mother did too. She didn't sign in her kid. She likely (don't know for sure) came to pick her up late.

I've seen parents stretch the rules time and time again. They want to bring their kids early. They want to leave them there for more than 10 hours. They bring in sick children. But by far the worst is picking them up late, time after time.

I remember time after time, waiting for parents to come pick up kids who were supposed to leave by 6:00. Even with a late fee of $1 per minute, they did it anyway.

Don't be so quick to blame the daycare workers.

[Jennicut]

20. I too braved working at a day care for about a year. The parents abused

the rules time and again and many were late to pick up their kids. However, we ALWAYS had someone check in every room to make sure no child was being left behind. Its the right thing to do.

[LisaM]

21. Of course, and I don't think anyone disputes that

Though I suppose you could theoretically miss a small, sleeping child in a crib.

I just got really sick of being late for my own plans because of the parents. For example, I was on a softball team. If we didn't have enough people by game time, we could forfeit our game. Now, that was an activity I did that I paid for, and that all the other people on my team paid for. So parent lateness could affect not just me, but eight or nine other people.

I understand that people can't always control when they leave work, but they are supposed to have someone in place as a backup to pick up their kids.

[Jennicut]

22. Oh, many parents were very rude. And their children were stressed out

waiting for their parents. Being a parent now, I never understood why they would do that. I guess more interested in their jobs then their kids.

[LisaM]

23. I don't think parents understood that 10 hours in a daycare

was the equivalent of a work day for their kids.

[sweetpotato]

24. Gee, I guess moms never get stuck at work

And I suppose most places moms work allow them to take unlimited time off due to a sick child.

We're ALL overworked and underpaid. That's what it means to be middle class Americans.

[LisaM]

26. Of course they get stuck at work

but there are also parents who know that no one's going anywhere while the kids are still there, so they stop and pick up groceries or this or that on the way home and who run consistently late.

I'm really not defending the actions of the daycare worker. I never left a kid locked inside (though the place I worked only took 12 kids). But you must understand that being a daycare worker - which doesn't raise most people to the middle class by the way - is not an easy job.

[zbdent]

25. If this was done by the mother, she would be either in jail or facing court-mandated

counseling ... at least, that's what I'd expect ...

I wonder how many times the mother had to pay because she was a few minutes late ... as I understand it, many "day care" facilities charge per minute when you're late to pick up your kid ...