PLANTATION (CBSMiami) – A South Florida daycare center has issued a statement after a 2-year-old girl was left all alone inside the building after it closed on Wednesday night.
According to a KinderCare spokesperson, “Nothing is more important to us than the safety of the children in our care. While we’re thankful the child was quickly found and was safe, this incident should not have happened.”
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According to close family friend Samantha Scaramellino, who posted about the incident on her Facebook page, the girl’s mother went to pick up her daughter from the KinderCare Child Care Center on Sunrise and Nob Hill in Plantation only to find “the building closed with lights turned off and all.”
The mother walked around the building “banging on all the windows and after a while, in the pitch-black room she sees her face emerge.”
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She had to call 911. Plantation Police and Fire Rescue arrived and got her out safely.
The rest of the KinderCare statement reads: “We take all concerns about children’s safety seriously and follow a specific protocol anytime an issue is raised. Part of that protocol includes notifying our agency partners, like state licensing and Child Protective Services, as we did in this case. We also placed the staff members involved on administrative leave while we, and our agency partners, look into the concern further.
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As these investigations take place, we’ll also take immediate steps to ensure this kind of thing doesn’t happen again. All of our teachers and staff will be retrained on proper child supervision. They’ll also receive additional training on childcare best practices as part of the curriculum we already had planned for all teachers and staff at our centers across the country for Professional Development Day on Monday.”
