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Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Children Daycare Nightmares

     Millions of children in the United States are being partially raised (or warehoused) in 400,000 or so licensed and regulated child care facilities. Forty-one percent of preschool children whose mothers are employed, find themselves in daycare 35 or more hours a week. In America, daycare has become a big business.

     Suzanne Venker, in an online "National Review" article entitled, "Will America Ever be Ready for the Truth About Daycare?" points out that politicians and media journalists avoid talking about the harm daycare is doing to the nation's children. Politicians don't want to offend female voters, and women in the media rely on daycare services themselves, and are therefore not prone to publicly discuss the issue. Venker, and others, consider daycare one of the greatest tragedies of modern America. They see the phenomena as a growing epidemic of parental abandonment.

     In her "National Review" piece, Venker discusses a recent e-book by May Saubiek called, "Doing Time: What It Really Means to Grow Up in Daycare." According to the author, daycare children receive very little individualized attention, and when they do, because of the high daycare employee turnover rates, it's often from a stranger. Because daycare is a business that relies on customers who believe their children are happy, and being cared for by people who care, parents aren't told how miserable their children really are. On the contrary, parents receive rose-colored reports of how well their kids are adapting and progressing. Parents are often told that the daycare experience helps "socialize" their children. According to Saubiek, Daycare life fosters aggressive behavior by forcing kids into survival mode. If a child wants a toy, he or she learns to fight for it. (This is probably true at home as well, and who knows, might not be a bad thing. But what do I know?)

     Saubiek, who has worked in child care, and has a master's degree in special education, equates children's time in daycare to the institutionalized nature of prison life. Some child care facilities are obviously better than others, and conditions might not be as bleak as this author describes. But it seems to me that, to some degree, a good number of working mothers' children are paying a price for the realities of modern society. Daycare workers are not highly paid, thoroughly investigated, or highly trained. The country is awash in drug use, alcoholism, mental illness, and pedophilia. Who are these rent-a-parents, and what are they doing to America's preschool population? (Some have argued that, in comparison, children are in more danger at home than in daycare centers. If true, how bad is that?)

Ludlow, Kentucky

     A child care facility in this northern Kentucky town, a daycare employee duck-taped an 18-month-old to a mat to calm him down during nap time. The matter didn't come to light until a fellow employee reported the incident to the police. The suspect, 20-year-old Alicia Lyons, was charged with a felony offense that carried a maximum 10 year prison sentence. Lyons, following the state required background check, began working at the facility. The daycare company had been in business three years, and has locations in two other Kentucky towns.

Hopkinsville, Kentucky

     The police arrested a daycare employee named Erica Jones who allegedly left a 3-year-old girl in a company van. The 40-year-old suspect had dropped the vehicle off at a tire company for maintenance. She left the van, and 45 minutes later, when a tire company employee climbed into the vehicle to move it into the garage, found the little girl crying and "very disoriented." Jones was charged with first-degree wanton endangerment of a child. The daycare center was called House of Angels.

Port Arthur, Texas

     An employee of Little Angel's Faith Development Center, left a 4-year-old "angel" in the back of the company van after she had driven home to take a nap. After two hours in the vehicle, the child managed to unlock the door and climb out. The 4-year-old walked several blocks to a major highway. Onlookers rescued the kid as she crossed the highway. The child's mother sued the daycare company for $1 million. The defendant settled the suit for an undisclosed amount. These daycare places are supposed to care for "angels," not make them.

Lodi, California

     Dorothy Bernhoft, 66, ran a licensed child care business out of her home. When investigators with the state Department of Social Services made a surprise visit to Bernhoft's house, they found nine infants, in darkened upstairs bathrooms and closets, strapped into car seats.

Midland, Texas

     Rashawn Rapheal Lewis, an employee of Peppermint Plantation Daycare, was taken into custody on charges he sold two grams of crack cocaine to a user, and made the deal at the daycare facility. He faced up to 20 years in prison. 

New York, New York

     A longtime New York Fire Department inspector pleaded guilty in federal court to accepting bribes from the owners of daycare centers in the city. In exchange for the money, Carlos Montoya, 54, certified that these facilities had complied with fire safety standards.  Six city employees and eight daycare operators pleaded guilty in the $1 million bribery case.

3 comments:

  1. Excellent post. We all need to be discussing this issue further instead of believing politicians like Obama and Hillary Clinton who believe a village (government funded daycare) should raise our children.

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  2. Nothing as been done on the Bernhoft case yet - 4 months later.

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  3. People like to tell themselves that incidents like these are isolated. I can assure you similiar and worse things happen everyday in EVERY facility in the world! I have worked in many facilities and owned my own center for 7 years. Teachers can and will do anything when they believe no one is looking. Even the things they do for laughs meaning no malice, are still horrifying. Same for most owners who ar ein it for the money alone.

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