Two-Year Old Walks Away from Heaven and Angel Day Care in Memphis

When a parent drops their child off at day care the one thing they depend on above anything else is that while in the custody of the day care the child will escape any major dangers. Outside of the random fall off a table how much real danger can a child get into in a closed facility? In Memphis on Wednesday we found out how much as a day care in the Southwestern section of the city was shut down by the Department of Human Services after it allowed a child to walk, crawl, or scoot out of the building and nearly into one of the busiest streets in the city.

South Third is arguably one of the ten busiest streets in the city. With it being the street most Memphisians take to get from the city to the casinos and resorts in Tunica, MS., South Third is always a street with drivers plowing through to get to somewhere. Near the corner of Third and Brooks sits an office of the Department of Human Services whose job it is to monitor and oversee the day care centers in its area. Across from that office sits one Heaven and Angel Day Care Center. It is this day care center that a 2-year old boy was able to escape and begin his journey onto South Third.

In an amazing or miraculous event, the boy was rescued by a worker for Memphis Light Gas & Water who saw the boy approaching the street and the oncoming traffic. Heaven and Angel certainly had someone watching over it because one can only imagine the furor that would have occurred if the young boy had been hurt in a collision on that street near the day care location at 3359 South Third.

Heaven and Angel have only been open about sixteen months and have been cited or had visits a dozen times by DHS monitors because of complaints by parents and the like. Amazingly the day care was allowed to stay open and on yesterday it had its license temporarily suspended pending an investigation. To make matters worse, the mother of the young boy was not off at work she was in the kitchen working as a cook in the facility. And if her son cannot be watched, whose son or daughter can?

Day care centers in Tennessee have been under increased scrutiny the last 2-3 years as a number of children were left in overheated vehicles during summer months. Several infant deaths occurred during this time and DHS began an intensive look into their oversight and policies affecting day cares across the state. No area or city is more problematic than Memphis which is why DHS officials are constantly monitoring and sourcing the actions of day care employees and owners.

Back in 1999, two vans operated by two different day cares left infants inside. On that hot, July summer day the city mourned as both infants succumbed to the heat and died of heat exhaustion. Earlier this month, the local CBS affiliate, WREG did a segment on how easy it is for someone to walk out with kids that do not belong to them at day cares across the city. In it, several locations failed to ask for identification or follow the DHS guidelines for releasing kids to people other than the parents.

As the father of a two-year old daughter Heaven and Angel Day Care is without excuse for how and why a child would be found by a city employee approaching a city street. Regardless of the fact that the child was unharmed the reality is things like this should not happen and Heaven and Angel Day Care must and will be held accountable for this lack of regard and utter irresponsibility. When parents drop their children off they do so with the trust that their kids will be returned at the end of the day in the same shape as they found them. That did not happen yesterday and cannot happen again. Kids cannot be allowed to roam without supervision. Doors to day care facilities must be guarded and protected in such a way those two-year olds cannot get out. And in no manner should a child be able to be outside, alone and no one notice.

That sets the stage for a two-year old to go to heaven and become an angel a lot sooner than any of us would like.