Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
No parent was going to sue. There was nothing to sue her over. I'll bet she doesn't get another worker every time she goes take a **** either.
The daycare's POLICY is written to comply with the law, with insurance regulations and to avoid potential lawsuits. The teacher violated the POLICY. The penalty for such violations is termination of employment.
That was your parents' choice. When you drop your kids off at daycare, your choice is that your child will be constantly supervised. And if they hurt themselves, you want to know how and why. When other family members entrust their children to me, I take the responsibility seriously. I know that their children go into their bedrooms and watch TV alone, I know that they let their children ride their bikes in the driveway alone, I know they don't supervise them 100% of the time. But when they entrust them to ME, I do supervise them 100% of the time. Because if anything happened to them, it would be on my watch. I have to answer to the parents. Parents can make the choice to foster independence in a child. Those they hire to take care of the children don't get to make those choices.
So you sit there and stare at them in the bathroom as they go potty? You hover over them and stare at them as they nap if they are of that age to take naps? You are most likely traumatizing these poor children. If the grilled cheese starts smoking at lunchtime you run and let your house burn to the ground? LOL
The daycare's POLICY is written to comply with the law, with insurance regulations and to avoid potential lawsuits. The teacher violated the POLICY. The penalty for such violations is termination of employment.
There is no policy that states that the teacher can't stop the fire from spreading. I would have gave her a bonus.
Harrier once left a three year old and a four year old alone in a room to watch Blue's Clues while he went to the bathroom for less than five minutes to "take care of business".
What an awful babysitter Harrier was - he ought to be put in prison!
It appears that is the route many want to take here. These champions of childcare declaring they watch over the children 100% of the time are just plain full of poopy which they would need to relieve themselves of while in the care of children. I guess they force the children to watch them go to the bathroom to so as not to be out of site. Quite disturbing.
Those children are entrusted to the teacher's care with the understanding that they will be constantly supervised. Constantly supervised. Not only do the parents expect their children to have an adult with them the entire time, but the LAW requires that those children have an adult with them constantly. And the owner of the daycare center is responsible for seeing that the LAW is followed, else she loses her license to operate the daycare center, and ALL her employees lose their jobs.
If you take your children to the neighborhood pool, and leave them in the care of the lifeguard, and the lifeguard steps away from the pool for whatever reason, if your child drowns is any reason going to be good enough? If you take your child to the park, and leave them in the care of a park ranger, and the park ranger goes off to do something, and your child runs into the street where he is struck by a car and killed, will you care why the park ranger left your child unattended?
Daycare centers don't just have rules. Daycare centers are governed by strict laws. Laws that tell them how many children they can accept per caretaker. Laws that tell them what they can feed children, and how much they can feed the children, and how often they can feed children. Laws that tell them what sort of activities they can involve the children in. Laws that tell them that they have to do complete background checks on their employees. Laws that tell them how much insurance they must carry. Their facilities are inspected regularly. The kitchen has to meet certain standards. The playground has to meet certain standards. They have to provide storage for the children. They have to provide a system of checking-in and checking-out, so that they always know how many children are there, and where those children are. If children under their care receive medication, they have to have someone qualified to administer that medicine and they have to have procedures for keeping the medicine locked up, and ensuring that no one has access to it, and that only the child authorized for the medication receives it.
Daycare centers are highly regulated. Which is one of the reasons daycare is so expensive.
The owner of this daycare has to think of those things. The owner has to think of the possibility of being sued. The owner has to think of the possibility of the state fining her or revoking her license.
Leaving kids unattended at a daycare center is a major violation. However well-intended the teacher was, she should have made sure the children had an adult supervisor with them, either by calling for help or by taking the children to another classroom. If something had happened to her in a fire, and the other teachers were busy evacuating their kids from the building, would the other staff had known to check on her kids? In the confusion, would her kids have been left behind, or left to figure out on their own that they had to get out of the burning building? What if one of the kids went looking for her? What if one of the kids hid in a closet or somewhere (very common thing for frightened children to do, and deadly in a fire)?
NEVER leave a classroom of pre-schoolers alone without adult supervision. NEVER.
If I owned a daycare, I would rather lose my license than lose a life or my property because I stuck to some stupid rule or regulation that intended to remove on site adult decisions.
So you sit there and stare at them in the bathroom as they go potty? You hover over them and stare at them as they nap if they are of that age to take naps? You are most likely traumatizing these poor children. If the grilled cheese starts smoking at lunchtime you run and let your house burn to the ground? LOL
Yes, I accompany the little ones to the bathroom. I don't stare at them while they go potty, and I don't stare at them while they nap. If the grilled cheese starts smoking, I remove the grilled cheese from the frying pan and the kids assemble another sandwich at the kitchen table. If they go outside to play, I am with them. If they take a bath, I'm with them. If I take them to the movies and they have to go to the bathroom, I go with them. I'm responsible for ensuring that NOTHING happens to them when their parents leave them with me, and it's a responsibility I take very seriously.
If I owned a daycare, I would rather lose my license than lose a life or my property because I stuck to some stupid rule or regulation that intended to remove on site adult decisions.
Understood. But the teacher leaving a room full of pre-schoolers is putting those pre-schoolers at risk. So the rule isn't stupid. And the teacher could have called for help, or could have taken the kids to another classroom before investigating the fire. The children are the priority. Always the priority. And the rules make the children the priority.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
