A two-year-old boy wandered out of the Childtime Daycare in Virginia Beach last month. The teachers at the daycare didn’t notice, reported WVEC.com, until two total strangers brought him back after he ran in front of a car.
It’s unclear how the boy got out of the daycare facility, but WVEC.com reported that a woman who happened to be driving through the neighborhood said she saw him “darting down the street…carrying a ball and giggling.” He stepped out in front of her car, but she was traveling under the speed limit and avoided him. As she was pulling over, he darted into the street a second time.
A neighborhood resident also saw the boy, and he and the woman returned him to the daycare. Teachers had no idea he had left. The women told a WVEC reporter that he was only a block from a busy street and could have been hit by a car.
The mother was understandably angry. When daycare employees told her about the incident, they omitted the fact that he wandered into the street and was returned by two strangers. If not for a concerned neighborhood resident, she would have never learned the truth.
The mother pulled the child from the daycare and filed a complaint with Child Protective Services. The Department of Social Services is investigating the daycare, which has had 11 violations between 2009 and March 2014, according to the Virginia Department of Social Services.
This boy could have been seriously injured, abducted, or died had civic-minded adults not returned him to the daycare.
Daycare centers take technological precautions to protect children, but there is no substitute for adult supervision. After all, as the mother of this child told a reporter, “That is their only job – is to take care of my son and keep him safe…”
A simple internet search reveals that this is not the only case of a daycare losing a child entrusted to its care. Daycare centers whose employees don’t adequately provide food, medicine, and physical attention needed are neglecting them and putting them at risk for sickness, serious injury, or death.
If you suspect your child’s daycare is abusing or neglecting your child, remove the child immediately and file a complaint with Child Protective Services. A child who is seriously injured due to a daycare’s neglect or abuse may be entitled to compensation for their injury. Consider speaking with a Virginia personal injury attorney who is knowledgeable about daycare facility neglect and abuse.
AM