Daycare workers react to hot car incident

Credentials and experience are a good start, but unceasing vigilance may still be the best guarantee against certain disasters, according to some daycare providers in eastern New Mexico.

“We are continually doing a head count,” said Millie Weed, owner and operator of Kid Care, a child care center licensed for the past 13 years in Clovis. “Any time that we move children, we get a count for how many are in the building.”

Weed spoke to The News last week in the wake of the tragedy Tuesday afternoon in Portales, when 22-month old Maliyah Jones died and 2-year old Aubrianna Loya was critically injured after being left in a hot car for 90 minutes.

Mary Taylor, 62, and Sandi Taylor, 31, co-operators of Taylor Tots daycare, were each charged with felony child abandonment resulting in death and great bodily harm.

The Taylors said they had forgotten about the toddlers still in the car after returning from a lunch outing with other children in their care, according to police documents.

Following the incident, Children Youth and Families Department stripped the daycare of its license, less than six months after clearing the facility on a semi-annual inspection for a license it held since 2013.

Like the now-closed Taylor Tots, Kid Care looks after no more than 12 children at a time.

For Weed and the one or two co-workers she maintains at any given time, coordination and repetition are the most proven practices for preventing deadly errors, she said.

“We go over scenarios for stuff like that at our staff meetings. We’ve already addressed this issue too, and we’ve talked to our parents as well,” Weed said. “As the children come in, (staff members) acknowledge each other as to what the count is. We audibly say it to the other person…and we’re pretty much doing a head count whenever we’re on the play yard. Even though we know we came out with a certain amount, we’re still constantly scanning.”

Even for larger operations such as “Wild ‘bout Kids” in Portales, the same principles apply — with one or two additional fail-safes.

“Anytime (children) are outside, (staff) do head counts before they come out and when they come in. I constantly just go around classrooms and ask how many kids each classroom has,” said Erika Chavez, who owns the licensed facility serving approximately 100 children with a 15-person staff for the past five years. “Our younger kids center has kids 6 weeks (old) to age 5 and they do not leave the building whatsoever.”

Chavez told The News she would like to believe that the incident last week at Taylor Tots would not have occurred at her daycare.

“I don’t know if it’s just because we have more staff and we are just constantly doing head counts, and ever since we started we’ve made it a priority to go through classrooms and make sure that all of our children are accounted for,” she said.

"It’s hard for me because I know those people. I’ve grown up in town here my whole life. Our town isn’t very big…it’s been hard for everybody.”

CYFD spokesman Henry Varela called Tuesday’s event a “heartbreaking tragedy,” one all the more unfortunate for occurring in spite of the department’s efforts to remind the public of precisely the same dangers posed by hot summer months.

“It’s a matter of making sure that not only child care services but all people are aware in the state that there should never be a reason to leave a child or multiple children in a vehicle unattended,” he said.

Anticipating the hazards of high temperatures, CYFD sent letters last month specifically warning their licensed child care providers – including the Taylors — of the dangers of combining children with hot cars, Varela said.

Additionally, CYFD had already directed its surveyors from the Early Childhood Service division to make the same reminder during their visits to licensed care providers this summer.

The danger is not only in forgetting a child in a car, but also in leaving a car unlocked for an unattended child to climb into, Varela said.

“It’s really about everybody being vigilant and watching for the children, and making sure areas are secure,” he said.

Varela did not indicate any serious changes to CYFD policy emerging from last week’s event, but one childcare provider in Portales said she’s expecting as much.

“They are going to change a lot of this policy. That’s how it’s going to be,” said Joselyn Lampkins, who has been licensed with CYFD the past 24 years and runs the 12-child “Joselyn’s Daycare” with her mother.

Lampkins said her facility typically does not transport the children at all, but if it does then only with parental permissions and parental chaperones.

She said she’s stayed in operation for such a long time by carefully following procedures, documenting everything, and sharing advice with her colleagues – including the Taylors, who worked down the street from her.

“I know (the Taylors). They are very nice people and sometimes they’d asked me what to do. I share whatever I know. I share what I know because I care for the children —not just the children at my daycare,” Lampkins said. “I don’t judge the workers because I’m a worker myself. I pray for them.”

“There’s going to be a lot of things that are going to change,” she added. “One makes a mistake, it’s everybody’s mistake.”