Accident at St. Albans Early Childhood Center (SAECC) - Tenleytown
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Anonymous
| Current Parent- I agree with PP, I’m sure it was an awful experience for the parents and I get why they pulled their child from the center. However, I too was impressed with how the administration handled it and it’s disappointing to see OP going out of her way on various threads to slam SAECC. |
Anonymous
| There is no way I would ever leave my kids in that place. So sorry your family went through that, OP. |
Anonymous
| Why? |
Anonymous
Well that all sounds great but OP's post suggests that after the incident they did not treat her very well. |
Anonymous
Which may be true, I don't have first hand knowledge of the interactions between OP and the Administration. Which is why I understand why she chose to pull her child from the program. What I don't understand is why OP is digging up old threads of SAECC and slamming them - she seems to have a vendetta against the center - so as a parent who has had multiple kids in the program for 5 years, I am offering another view. I'm also not sure what people expect from the outcome. The staff member responsible for the incident was fired. The administration has implemented new safety checks, an email was sent out to parents, the Director was available to answer questions. How else would you expect a facility to handle an incident such as this one? Shut the center down? |
Anonymous
To treat the parent of the child with compassion. I have no skin in this game (our child is in another daycare very far from SAECC), but OP is angry and has every right to be. A bunch of posts on DCUM is not going bring down SAECC. It's going to be okay. |
Anonymous
| So because one emotional parent rants all over DCUM that she was treated unkindly you assume that one lone voice is the more accurate representative for the SAECC experience? Interesting. |
Anonymous
| Any center or school (or doctor does that matter) you research is always going to have at least one person who was disappointed with their experience and would not return. That’s life. |
Anonymous
| *for that matter |
Anonymous
You are incoherent. I'm taking the OP at her word that she was not treated well. I haven't said anything about the SAECC experience. |
Anonymous
| If you have to resort to name calling to make your point that says a lot ?? |
Anonymous
About what? Wow y'all are defensive about SAECC. |
Anonymous
| Hello All. This is the executive director at SAECC. I am so sorry this incident happened. As the parent indicated, one of my teachers didn't completely buckle the child in the seat. This is horrible and should have never happened. When it did happen we responded immediately. Within a few minutes the parents arrived to a child who was calm, uninjured, and being held by the teacher and attended to by an administrator. They decided to take the child to a nearby hospital instead of allowing us to call EMS. The entire time, we were in touch with the family. The same evening, after the parents reported that the doctor cleared the child, the parents returned and we spoke at great length answering all questions. We offered to show the video footage and they declined to view the coverage. Once all questions were answered the parents asked to withdraw and removed their child's belongings. We refunded their tuition and deposit. After reviewing all tapes, interviewing the staff and adminstrators, we made a determination to terminate the teacher and an administrator. We reported the incident to OSSE, met with staff, held a town hall with parents, and added more procedures to ensure this would never again. We were very transparent with our entire community. We met with all families and cooperated with regulatory officials. The communication with the family discontinued after the parents threatened us. In addition, the parents made an attempt to sue us, continued to harrass us, posted discrediting post throughout the community on various blogs and listservs. Attempts were made to close our business and file criminal charges against the teachers. Moreover, the parent continued sending countless emails to the enrolled families in an attempt to destroy the school. The attempts were unsuccessful as all parents remained enrolled and felt assured that the matter was handle as well as to be expected. As shared, this was a horrible situation and no excuse is acceptable. It was an accident and it was handled. In over 40 years we have never had anything happen like this, and we pray it never will. Even as I write this response, I am sickened to my core and my heart hurt. Protecting children at any length is apart of my fiber and it's what our organization vows the achieve. I completely understand why the parents are upset. We are to be entrusted with the care of all children and one person made a mistake. We take responsibility and apologize wholeheartedly. Although nothing can change what occurred, I know we have a great staff and a wonderful program. We have cared for thousands of children and the community loves us. We hope that the familiy is able to move on knowing that the child was unharmed and we are remorseful. We also hope that the parent is able to forgive us instead of continuing with many attempts to bash us and discredit our program. As many former and current parents have indicated, this is an unusual incident and is not representative of mode of operating. Lastly, all charges were dropped although OSSE sited us for unwillingful negligence since they too watched the video footage and concluded it was an accident. |
Anonymous
You call a baby dropped on his head "disappointing"? Wow. |
Anonymous
Her kid was dropped on his head. I'm betting that's the main issue for the OP -- not that she was treated unkindly. |