Accident report at daycare: child injured by staff - WWYD

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone. I would be less upset if this had been the result of a tantrum - my older child was hell on wheels as a toddler and I know how hard it can be to wrestle with a flailing hysterical child. But that wasn't the case here and the head teacher actually seemed kind of embarassed by the director's explanation to me. And my reaction is compounded by their attitude over his previous "sit-ins" - a lot of frustration directed at me and a slew of written behavior reports (which in 6 years at the daycare and MUCH greater transgressions I've never before received), complete with photo documentation! I met with the entire team awhile back and things seemed to improve, but at the same time my son now gets hysterical when it's time to leave for daycare, which he never did before. After yesterday's admission that they grabbed him so hard he might be bruised, I'm beginning to wonder if he's upset because he's being mistreated.

We've always intended to move him before K, simply because he is a winter birthday and don't want him spending 18/20 months in the 4yo classroom. But I do trust most of the teachers, especially a few who are just awesome, and after 6 years, I sometimes have a bit of "the devil you know is better than the devil you don't." I'm going to have to make a decision about what to do - my son turns 3yo in a few weeks and should move to that classroom, and I've been torn about that - half of me thinks the change would be good, but I also worry that a bigger classroom with higher expectations might just exacerbate things. My plan is to sit down with another senior administrator, whom I've known throughout and trust implicitly, and see if I can figure out a good approach. I really appreciate the gutcheck from other parents on whether I'm overreacting.

OP there are so many red flags and indicators that this is just not a good place for your son. You really need to leave. I understand the devil you know fears BUT seriously this is just completely unacceptable on so many levels. The director hurt your child and your child gets hysterical when you go to daycare. What possible approach could you and the senior administrator come up with that would make it OK to leave your son here any longer?

We stayed too long at a poorly run daycare because we loved the teachers in my youngest child's class and were OK with the teachers in my older child's class. The place always had problems and when a new director came who was a total creep, enough was enough. I am so, so glad that we moved and kicked myself for not doing it sooner.

The poster who pointed out that just because she wrote out an incident report it doesn't make it OK. It sounds like she is trying to cover her ass and knows that she possibily injured your child. The reaction from the other teacher about the director is very telling too. The teacher wouldn't embarrassed if the director had been behaving appropriately.

[Anonymous]

I agree with the PP. She knows that she crossed a line in disciplining your child and tried to cover her ass by telling you that she might have bruised him because he's big and heavy. That's nonsense. His size would have nothing to do with marks left on his body - the amount of pressure that she applied would lead to marks. I would contact licensing and provide them with a copy of this incident report and I'd look for another center although you don't want to leap too quickly.