DOTHAN, Ala. (WTVY) – A 3-year-old child wandered off unattended from his daycare in Dothan this week and walked to a local store, where someone noticed him about 25 minutes later.
“He said he wanted to go to the bathroom and (the daycare worker) told him to go on his own,” the boy’s mother, Jasmine Nagy, said Thursday, two days after the incident at the Kiddie Care Learning Center.
KiddiCare Learning Center, Dothan, Alabama (WTVY)
She told News 4 her son, Sir Paxton, walked across the street to the Walmart Neighborhood Market, where about 20 minutes later, an employee who is also a family friend spotted the boy heading to the register with a Hot Wheels toy and snacks.
“(Surveillance) cameras showed him leaving the daycare at 4:07,” Nagy said, confirming that police received a call about the incident at 4:30.
What puzzled Nagy most, she claimed, was that no one notified her until she received a call from the daycare at about 5pm.
Although frustrated, Nagy said she’s grateful her son wasn’t hurt while crossing Buckingham Drive.
“We may be grieving his death,” she told News 4.
“I would like to extend my sincere apologies to the children in our care, their parents and anyone else affected by this situation,” daycare owner Kisia Saffold said in a statement. “As the director and owner of the facility, I take full responsibility for failing to ensure the safety of the children in my care, which has always been my number one priority.”
Saffold said security measures would be updated.
Her full statement is as follows:
Updated statement to parents: We deeply apologize to the children in our care, their parents and those affected by this situation.
As a director and owner, I take full responsibility for failing to ensure the safety of those in our care, a duty that I have always made my number one priority.
The unthinkable happened. I won’t go into details, but I will say this: No one wants to be in a situation where a mistake is made that puts a child’s safety at risk, nor do I expect it to happen. When a mistake is made, you want to say and do the right thing. I concluded that no matter what I said, there would be people who would criticize our actions that day and what we said in response. Hindsight is 20/20. I regret that this happened. This mother trusted us to care for her child, and we failed her. I am committed to taking steps to ensure this never happens again.
To our family and community: We understand your frustration, anger and concern. New safety measures are now being implemented. We will cooperate fully with all agencies involved in this investigation to understand exactly what went wrong and how we can prevent this from happening again.
We promise to learn from this incident and work tirelessly to rebuild the broken trust. The safety of your children will always be our number one concern.
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