Toddler dies after being left in hot van - 'criminal charges to be filed' against Daycare Center

The Dallas Morning News ^ | June 3, 2003 | By IAN McCANN / The Dallas Morning News

[MeekOneGOP]

Toddler dies after being left in hot van

06/03/2003

By IAN McCANN / The Dallas Morning News

A 2-year-old left inside a hot daycare van in Lancaster for more than two hours on Friday died early Tuesday.

The boy, whose name has not yet been released, had been in critical condition at Children’s Medical Center in Dallas. He died about 12:15 a.m., hospital officials said.

Police said the boy and nine other children had returned from a field trip to a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant about 1 p.m. Workers realized that he was still strapped in a car seat inside the van about 3:25 p.m. and called 911. Temperatures topped 100 degrees Friday afternoon.

Representatives for the Little Dudes and Daisies Daycare and Learning Center on North Dallas Avenue could not be reached for comment.

Lancaster police have scheduled a news conference for Tuesday afternoon to announce criminal charges to be filed in the case.

The Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services, the agency that regulates daycares, is also investigating.

“[Police] are evaluating the incident,” said Stacey Ladd, a department spokeswoman. “Mostly, we’re evaluating the safety of the children. Obviously, we’re working closely together.”

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Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/latestnews/stories/060303dnmettotdies.804ccad3.html

[MeekOneGOP]

Rest in peace , little one.

Here is the article posted Saturday the 31st:

Child left in stifling day-care center van

[Conspiracy Guy]

This is happening so frequently, it reaffirms the sacrifices my ex-wife and I made in order for her to be a stay at home mom as having been on of the things we did right. Where do you hire someone so stupid they can't check the damn seats.

[lilylangtree]

Very sad indeed!

[Redbob]

You're absolutely right.
The mother of this child certainly deserves a big share of the blame - the child was HER responsibility, but the odds are she was too obsessed with the pursuit of material things to even consider staying home and raising the child she brought into this world.

I can just see her "friends" telling her, "Oh you poor thing, I know you must be suffering."
But not like her child did in his last minutes of life.

[LizardQueen]

Sometimes it's the parents who leave them locked in a hot car, but often they don't get prosecuted (at least not to the extent I'd like).

How the heck does someone forget a child in a hot car?

LQ

[Conspiracy Guy]

I think it's time that COUPLES decide. Do we want things or children.

[proud_2_B_texasgal]

><> The mother of this child certainly deserves a big share of the blame - the child was HER responsibility, but the odds are she was too obsessed with the pursuit of material things to even consider staying home and raising the child she brought into this world. <><

This is pretty unfair. As a single mom of two girls, I really struggle with the daycare issue. I would hope that if something happened to my child at daycare that someone wouldn't say that my selfishness caused her to die.

Having said that, I get to KNOW my daycare workers by name, talk to them daily, I KNOW when field trips are scheduled to come and go, and call to check on my kids.

But that wouldn't stop someone elses negligence to somehow harm my child.

[Conspiracy Guy]

It should be life in prison. No differnce in this and drowning them. We took our kids inside to buy a coke at a convenience store. If you don't have time to properly treat the child, stay at home. Mine were 17 mos apart so you really planned things out.

[ErnBatavia]

Related...a couple of weeks ago, during a late May heatwave where it got up to around 115 here in the desert, the lady I work with was at WalMart and noticed a commotion.

A woman had locked her keys in her car - which also contained her strapped in baby. Needless to say in that heat, the mom disregarded suggestions to call a locksmith and proceeded to have a passerby get something from his trunk and blow out a window.

Maybe expensive, but the right thing to do....the situation was over with in less than 2 minutes.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

Good for this mother. I would do the same, in a heartbeat.

[annyokie]

That's a mean thing to say. Since when is a child only the mother's responsibility? Maybe her husband had a crummy job and she HAD to work? Maybe they have no relatives around available to babysit?

The slamming of working mothers is unnecessary. And, yes, I stayed home with my kids and still do.

[RomanCatholicProlifer]

I do not understand how any parent with a modicum of common sense would ever consider sending their children to one of these disease infested daycare warehouses........why any mother would allow these minimum wage thugs to take the place of their nurturing care is beyond comprehension!!

[Under the Radar]

I am just sick to my stomach. The poor family.

[samuel_adams_us]

Those who are responsible should face the death penality. Anyone who values life so little as to forget about a youngster needs to die.

[annyokie]

Amen. I had to put my youngest in daycare for a few months and it tore me up everyday to do so.

My then husband had lost his job and our car couldn't make its own payments.

[TLBSHOW]

I am sicken by this needless death.

[Corin Stormhands]

Where do you hire someone so stupid they can't check the damn seats.

A lot of parents have been guilty of the same thing.

A few months back, here in Virginia a father of 13 (or was it 11) left the baby in the car for seven hours while he was at home inside with the other children.

This is not a defense of the daycare center (there is no defense). But, sadly, they aren't the only guilty ones.

[LizardQueen]

Sometimes it's not that simple. If I didn't work we would lose the house. Period. And it's not a big house (1000 sq foot ranch, one of the cheapest in the area).

It's just that hubby doesn't make enough for me to have kids and stay home and still have minimal food, clothing, and shelter. We ended up not having kids for this and many other reasons.

Now if the government would stop taking our income up through May (isn't that when Tax Freedom Day is?) we'd all be in a bit better shape and maybe more people could stay home with their kids.

Not all mothers who work work for luxuries, and I get real tired of the constant prattle of those who insist that ALL of them do.
Especially with today's house prices, there is only so much expenses you can cut before you are living in a cardboard box, if the husband's salary isn't top-drawer. And not all of us are that lucky.

LQ

[proud_2_B_texasgal]

... sending their children to one of these disease infested daycare warehouses........why any mother would allow these minimum wage thugs ... come on people .. not all daycares are "disease infested warehouses" that employ "thugs"... this is so hurtful to someone who HAS to use a daycare. there are good daycares and bad daycares. I'm very happy with the one my daughter goes to, and I had to give up some things in order to afford it.

[Under the Radar]

>The mother of this child certainly deserves a big share of the blame-
> the child was HER responsibility, but the odds are she was too obsessed with
>the pursuit of material things to even consider staying home and raising
> the child she brought into this world.

This is pretty unfair. As a single mom of two girls, I really struggle with the daycare issue. I would hope that if something happened to my child at daycare that someone wouldn't say that my selfishness caused her to die.

Yes, it is unfair to criticize widows like yourself, who have no choice but to be single and deal with needing to work. Of course, it is different when discussing women who choose to be single, such as by divorce or having never been married. These women deserve the criticism. They are building their own personal, self-serving interests on the backs of their children.