Leaving your little one at daycare is never easy. American mum Alice Martin thought she had made the right decision about her daughter’s new daycare centre, until this happened.
Alice’s 15-month-old had only been at her new daycare centre for five days when she came home covered in bite marks. And we’re not just talking about a one-off incident. This poor little girl looks like she’s been attacked by an animal!
Child bitten at daycare
Alice shared her story on Facebook and spoke to her local news station in Tucson, Arizona about the incident.
It’s stomach-turning. It feels both angry and sad at the same time.”
One of the worst things about the situation is that Alice wasn’t informed that anything had happened at daycare. No one mentioned her daughter had been bitten multiple times when she picked her up. It was only after Alice changed her daughter at home that she noticed them.
At first, I was like ‘are those really bite marks?’ And then, my brain kinda stopped thinking and I started crying. There’s over 25 plus, it’s hard to tell. 25 would be the minimum that the police officer and I discussed.
The fact that they didn’t notify me even when I picked her up is just, astounding.”
Mum demands answers
Alice spoke to the Tucson Police Department about the incident but so far no charges or arrests have been made. Police have indicated that the bite marks appear to be from another child.
You always want to protect your children and I feel like that didn’t happen. I feel like I left her with someone that didn’t look out for her at all.
Do I know what happened? No, but I know that a child getting bitten that many times would be crying and very upset.”
The fact that nobody intervened in how many minutes, maybe they were left alone, maybe they just disregarded the cries, I don’t know. But it takes some time to do that kind of biting and my daughter would have been very upset.”
The daycare, Creative Beginnings Preschool in Tucson, Arizona, is still up and running. However, there have been quite a few incident reports, as noted on ChildcareCentre.Us. They have not addressed the biting incident.
Scary, right? I couldn’t even imagine sending my child to daycare and discovering this sort of thing could have happened. However, it does.
Justice for Meeky
Just last year, three-year-old Meeky, died from heat exhaustion after being left on a Goodstart Early Learning daycare bus all day in the Far North Queensland heat. He was meant to be in the care of his daycare providers but they left him strapped in his car seat on the bus for six hours. He was the only child on the bus.
One daycare provider has been since been jailed. The other walked free.
Choosing the right daycare
We highly recommend always having a look at Starting Blocks where you can compare childcare centres in your area and find out if they are up to the accreditation standards set in Australia. There are seven different criteria and five different standards – it’s definitely worth a look before you make any decision.
Have a read of our tips on choosing the right daycare as well. Things like this should never happen.
