A mother in America is speaking out about the horror of discovering her one-year-old locked inside his daycare without supervision. The worrying incident has left the mum seeking legal counsel, the daycare forced to close, and the little boy “clingier” than ever.
Mum finds her child locked inside daycare centre
Milwaukee mum Kendra Jordan dropped her son, Kay’vontae off at his trusted daycare Amazing Mays on Thursday afternoon. Kendra works night shifts and Amazing Mays offers childcare outside of the regular hours we’re used to in Australia.
What this means is that Kendra often would drop her son off in the afternoon and pick him up after her shift late at night. There was always staff on the night shift that would take care of the children whose parents work late.
On this particular evening, Kendra arrived at the daycare to find most of the lights off and the door locked. She could hear her son crying inside through a cracked window. Jordan, who had been with Amazing Mays Childcare for nearly a year, immediately tried to get a hold of someone inside to open the door but no one answered.
Traumatising, stressful, emotional
She called 911 and police soon arrived on the scene. The police were able to get a hold of the owner who arrived at the daycare 40 minutes later to release Kay’vontae.
“It’s shocking, it’s traumatising, it’s stressful, and it’s emotional,” Jordan told CBS 58. “So many thoughts were running through my mind because so many kids every day coming up missing, so many kids every day coming up deceased.
I just hugged him and I cried.”
While Kay’vontae is physically okay, Jordan said since the incident, he’s become clingier and is having trouble sleeping.
Very scary experience
Kendra has since pulled Kay’vontae out of Amazing Mays and is searching for an alternative solution. However, she admits her trust in any childcare provider is gone.
“Everyone is referring me to their daycare and it’s like if I can’t call him 24/7 to see if he’s okay, I don’t even want to put him in there,” she explained. “Like I can’t trust day cares no more. That was a very scary experience, like I honestly thought I lost my baby.”
Kendra is hoping that by sharing her story, the daycare worker will take full responsibility for what has happened. She is hoping no other parent will have to go through what she and Kay’vontae went through.
Kenra is also seeking legal representation while Amazing Mays Childcare has been closed indefinitely while police continue with their investigation.
The owner of Amazing Mays Childcare released a statement via Facebook about the incident:
“I would like to address a situation that occurred last night at Amazing Mays Childcare. During the closing shift, a child was left in the daycare unattended by night shift staff. I was alerted by the child’s aunt an hour later and within about 40 minutes of travel time arrived on scene to unite the child with their parent. This was an isolated incident and the child was not harmed.
As the owner and operator of Amazing Mays Childcare, I take accountability for this terrible incident. At Amazing Mays, we take pride in providing the best care and attention to our children and ensuring a safe and fun environment.
As unfortunate as this situation is we are forced to do an immediate closure during the investigation process. We do not have a time limit or direction to where this situation may lead AMCC but we are truly thankful for the families we served in the past 7 years.
We are all devastated at this situation and praying that our families find a nice secure daycare for the children in the mean time. I would like to extend my sincere apologies to the family and assure all other parents of Amazing Mays Child Care.”
The daycare incident comes just months after another child was repeatedly scratched in the face by a toddler while in daycare. The very distraught mum shared her story publicly, admitting the Melbourne childcare told her it was just a “small incident”.
We’ve also shared a story in the past of a child who was repeatedly bitten at daycare. Another infant was killed after her daycare provider gave her cold medication which caused an overdose.
We don’t share these stories to shock, but to remind parents just how important it is to make sure your child’s daycare is up to the national standards.
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