It can be so difficult to find a day care that's good enough to trust with our children. One North Olmsted, Ohio, mother thought she had — until the Bee My Baby Child Care staff allegedly let her special needs toddler slip away unnoticed into a busy street, reported Cleveland 19 News. Fortunately a good Samaritan returned the child unharmed, but we all know how badly things could have gone.
Now the mom is debating whether to press charges over the incident, in part to help protect the other kids who still attend the facility. Accidents can happen, but the Ohio mother thinks the day care downplayed the severity of what allegedly happened with her kid, and she thinks that's unacceptable.
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The day care 'made it sound ... a lot less dramatic of a thing than it actually was.'
The mom, who requested anonymity, told Cleveland 19 News that she learned more about the incident from police on July 12, two days after it happened.
"[The day care] kind of made it sound like a lot quicker of a thing and a lot less dramatic of a thing than it actually was," she said, claiming that it was described as her daughter wandering off and being brought back by a nearby woman.
But after speaking with police, the mother claimed that the woman who found the child had to stop several cars in traffic to get the little girl out of the middle of the busy road.
'No child will be left unsupervised.'
Bee My Baby Child Care has two day care and educational facilities in Ohio — one in North Olmsted, where this alleged incident took place, and one in Lakewood, Ohio. According to its website, Bee My Baby Child Care caters to children 6 weeks to 12 years old.
The company's online handbook says that "no child will be left unsupervised" in their care, "with at least one staff member caring for every group of children in accordance to state childcare ratios."
According to Cleveland 19 News, the Ohio mother said that the day care had the kids outside for a Kona ice truck snack when her daughter was seemingly able to slip away. "Just the fact that nobody knew that she was in the road, in the middle of a very busy road, and down the street a little bit," the mom said, adding, "It's too much negligence for me. That's too long for her to have been unnoticed."
A negative review for the day care cited the staff's alleged 'lack of attention.'
The day care's supervision was called into question in a 2018 review on Care.com. Dima Y. wrote, "It is an awful daycare. The owner didn't care about the children safety. The staff lack of attention." Dima claimed that her child was left alone in the bathroom on a stepladder, which Dima felt was a fall hazard. Dima also claimed "the lack of attention" from staff led to her daughter getting bitten on the face by another child.
Dima didn't say how old her daughter was at the time of those alleged incidents, but the Bee My Baby Child Care handbook did state some exceptions to their "no child will be left unsupervised" rule. The handbook says that "a school age child" can go to the bathroom or "run errands inside the building … without adult supervision, as long as they are within hearing distance of the adult, and the adult checks on them every 5 minutes until their return."
From the Ohio mother's description, it doesn't sound like the recent alleged incident falls in line with those rules — especially because her child is only 2 years old and was outside the building.
The mom may press charges.
The reason the mother requested anonymity is that as she told Cleveland 19 News, she hadn't yet decided if she wanted to take legal action. She expressed that while her daughter will no longer be going to the day care, she worries about the rest of the kids.
"That's kind of part of why I wanted to not just keep quiet about it," she said. "I'm not trying to hurt anybody or ruin anybody's business or get anybody in trouble, but like, at the same time … that could have been anybody's kid, and it could have gone very, very differently."
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The area is already on edge from a child's death in June.
In early June in the North Olmsted area, a 3-year-old was stabbed to death while with his mother outside a local grocery store. The day care mother seemingly referenced this incident in her interview with Cleveland 19 News. "It's already been, like, extra scary lately since, you know … about a month ago, with that child that was killed in the area," the mom said. "It just already puts parents on edge."
In addition to that toddler's death, a 7-year-old Ohio boy was hit by a car on July 11 just before 6 p.m. and was last reported to be in critical condition, per Fox 8. And in May, a 12-year-old Ohio boy was hit and killed by a car while riding his bike at 3:40 p.m., according to the Kansas City Star.
Having a toddler in the middle of a busy street can lead to so many disastrous outcomes. This Ohio mother is very lucky that someone was able to return the child to the day care unharmed.
Per Cleveland 19 News, the police are still investigating, and it's likely the case will be given over to local Children and Family Services. The outlet called the day care, but was told "no comment" by someone who then hung up the phone.
