Mommy Nightmares: Woman Arrives at Daycare Center, Finds Baby Locked Inside, Alone
Police in Atlanta are investigating a day care center in Atlanta after area mother Lakristy Rogers arrived to pick up her child and found the place locked up with the lights turned off inside:
Rogers banged on the door and windows, but no one answered, police said. When the mother saw her 8-month-old girl asleep in a crib, she called 911.
Police and firefighters arrived and were able to break into the building to get the child, who was fine.
“An officer had his eyes on the baby the whole time,” Officer Mike Bowman said.
The Cobb police Crimes Against Children unit is investigating. A state agency that monitors childcare centers, Bright from the Start, is also investigating the incident, but cannot comment on the case, a spokeswoman told the AJC.
“It is an open investigation,” said Sophal Lackey, spokeswoman for Bright from the Start.
The Atlanta Journal-Consitution report helpfully adds, “State laws requires that children be supervised at all times.” Yeah, no kidding. The owner of the day care center is understandably beside herself. “I don’t have any defense for it,” she said. “I can give you all kinds of reasons why it happened. It’s reprehensible.”
But here’s the most remarkable thing about the story — the Mom is calling the whole episode an honest mistake and says the owner is “good woman” and she has no plans to take her daughter out of the daycare center. Apparently, the mother passed the owner in her car on the way to pick her daughter up, so she wasn’t left alone long. When you’re wrangling a number of kids, I can see where someone might forget about a silent sleeping baby in a crib.
Nonetheless, I don’t know if I could be so forgiving. The Atlanta Journal-Consitution further notes that a report from state authorities “cited the center for a discipline and staffing problem” last fall.
What do you think? If this were your child, would you be able to keep your own child in the same day care center after something like this happened?
