I removed my son from Precious Hands Academy Meridian in the middle of last year and I am ashamed…read morethat I am just now posting the facts of why, but it was a lot to cope with while separating from his father, working full-time and not being able to press charges. I have read too many things to not at this point.
April 27, 2022 - I received a call that my child's hand had been closed in the outside door and that it was "pretty messed up". Living 2 blocks away I rushed there in 2 minutes, picked him up, and took him to the urgent care behind the center. He had an x-ray and due to his bones not being fully developed, we were lucky it wasn't broken.
Okay, mistakes happen..
July 20th, 2022 - I picked up my son from daycare and the lady from his 2's classroom mentioned he had a rash, and that it "was a struggle to change his diaper, it took them a while and he was really upset". My first question was "why didn't you call me", they knew I lived two blocks away and work from home. When I got him home I immediately went to check and found a diaper rash that looked like burn marks. He was in excruciating pain. I scheduled a meeting with the owner in the morning who apologized profusely and blamed it on "needing to provide the girls better training", I felt a bit uneasy but I was reassured she would personally be checking on him every hour, they texted me throughout the day, moved him to the upper 2's class with my niece that was verbal and I picked him up early. Why I left him another day.. breaks my heart and makes me feel like such a terrible mom.
July 21st, 2022 - I went to change my sons diaper in the morning and found bruised handprints appearing on his inner thighs. I sent pictures to the owner and said he would not be coming back. I called the police immediately and they came to take a statement and scheduled me an appointment with child abuse investigators.
During that appointment, the investigator said this was obvious signs of child abuse based on the rash and bruising. She also confirmed 5 days after the bruising began to show (that's how bad it was) that she had no doubt they were handprints, and cried with me.
Two days later, I received a call from the detective who said that because the daycare did not admit to holding him down, there wasn't enough evidence to prosecute and they were forced to drop my case.
I documented everything, I followed all of the right steps.. when I reached out asking for others to message me their experiences, the over-pour of messages was horrendous. I documented all of those and sent them to the detective, still nothing. I cannot share those stories since there is no evidence.
My niece came home one day after wearing the same diaper from 12:15-6:15, they blamed it on shift change. (documented)
Both children came home thirsty every day. They let them play outside in high temperatures. Sugar was everywhere. Candy, dumdums we're given to 2 year olds, my niece swallowed one and choked on it. I believe it was my mom who smacked her back and it flew out of her throat. They do not allow parents past the gate for a reason and I should have questioned this. One time I went to pick him up and there were 16 kids in a room with two girls sitting in a corner on their phones.
To all of the parents who have their children there, I am so sorry I didn't have the courage to say anything before today. please forgive me.