JB Myer-Henderson Hall, Cody CDC?

[Anonymous]

Now that the CDC is back up and running and clearing their wait lists, any newer parents or established parents have any feedback on the center? How are things, how is the director, do they seem to be back on track? I am still on the waitlist but the last time I updated it sounded like my DS may actually be offered a spot shortly. TIA!

[Anonymous]

New report of abuse hit the news today.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/employee-at-troubled-military-child-care-center-on-va-base-accused-of-assaulting-kids/2014/03/13/c54c35fa-aac9-11e3-98f6-8e3c562f9996_story.html

[Anonymous]

Is this the one you are thinking of? If so, you may want to reconsider after reading this. Just posted today

http://www.wjla.com/articles/2014/03/child-caregiver-charged-with-misdemeanor-assault-101117.html#ixzz2vrrO85g3

[Anonymous]

Current parent, they sent a letter but did not tell us that it was mulitple instances. Now I feel the need to know if my kid were ever with this woman.

So, as of this minute, I am not please at all.

[Anonymous]

Daycare run by a military base can't fix itself. They need to outsource it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Daycare run by a military base can't fix itself. They need to outsource it.

Disagree. There are wonderful DoD run programs all over the world. What they need to do is hire better people. The new director is fantastic. They need to rid themselves of people who were part of the old regime.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Daycare run by a military base can't fix itself. They need to outsource it.

Disagree. There are wonderful DoD run programs all over the world. What they need to do is hire better people. The new director is fantastic. They need to rid themselves of people who were part of the old regime.

And a lot of DoD is outsourced (Belvoir is Bright Horizons) and you do not hear of those centers having problems. Navy does a great job running their daycares. So is it the Army? The base commander? They supposedely cleaned house and fixed everything. Yet, they had this woman with multiple instances of abuse. And how many kids got hit by this woman and weren't on the 30 days of film? So how many parents there had kids hurt or not fed by this woman and will never know?

So they should be second guessing themselves now. Little Johnny was acting out for a few days... Might have been that he was being hit by his teacher, but that parent will never know. Thankfully kids are resilient.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Daycare run by a military base can't fix itself. They need to outsource it.

Disagree. There are wonderful DoD run programs all over the world. What they need to do is hire better people. The new director is fantastic. They need to rid themselves of people who were part of the old regime.

And a lot of DoD is outsourced (Belvoir is Bright Horizons) and you do not hear of those centers having problems. Navy does a great job running their daycares. So is it the Army? The base commander? They supposedely cleaned house and fixed everything. Yet, they had this woman with multiple instances of abuse. And how many kids got hit by this woman and weren't on the 30 days of film? So how many parents there had kids hurt or not fed by this woman and will never know?

So they should be second guessing themselves now. Little Johnny was acting out for a few days... Might have been that he was being hit by his teacher, but that parent will never know. Thankfully kids are resilient.

This is incorrect. The DLA CDC is Bright Horizons. The three CDCs on Fort Belvoir are DoD run programs. They are wonderful. Great staff with very little turnover. Fort Belvoir is building two more CDCs. The problem with Cody is likely the residual staff from the old director. I've used both Cody and Fort Belvoir, and Belvoir is so much better - more organized, caring staff, smaller size.

[Anonymous]

How much of this is happening at other daycares in our area? The military has a spotlight shown on them, but they are also nearly the only ones who can prove it because of the cameras. My guess is a lot of centers (not just DoD) have this issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How much of this is happening at other daycares in our area? The military has a spotlight shown on them, but they are also nearly the only ones who can prove it because of the cameras. My guess is a lot of centers (not just DoD) have this issue.

Actually, I would agree with this. I think that military centers have more accountability and can weed these people out. Other centers do not. A center this week had a husband drug dealing out of it and driving the kids around while high. I know of small centers that leave the kids in their carseats all day (a kind of abuse). I imagine that more kids are exposed to some kind of abuse in daycare settings than we really want to admit. We can try to protect them but in the end it is part of life and the best we can hope for is that there is no long term damage. (My kids are in daycare, so I am not some preachy SAHM)

[Anonymous]

They are going to have a townhall on Tuesday night to talk about it. The best part is the center sent on the letter AFTER the news article.

[Anonymous]

How did other parents feel the town hall went? Any new answers, concerns?

[Anonymous]

The town hall was very small. There were some really good questions asked (and some decent answers). Parents were upset that this had happened again. That the caregiver had been there a long time and was a main caregiver. So she obviously had been doing this for a while if 30 days of tape showed 6-7 difference incidents that she had done. I went to the meeting because no one had told me what room this person was in or if they were a floater and I wanted to know if my kids had been around her. I wish that information had been put out in the initial reports.

A parent from that room was very shocked but went on to say that her kid jumped when that caregiver said to jump, etc.

The Criminal investigation is apparently ongoing but several parents had really good points as to when steps that investigation should be doing regarding other kids that are probably victims but not on tape. It appeared that the Criminal investigation really hadn't done much more than review the tapes in all of this time.

There was talk of putting more information out to the parents from behavioral health specialists and ways for parents to talk to management about concerns if their child was acting different or exhibiting new behaviors.

A suggestion was made that the child population that was more vulnerable (the ones that do not have the verbal skills) need more safeguarding. That was an excellent point.

I wish more parents had atttended. I don't know if the parents are becoming numb, don't care, or if since there was only one announcement and the snow day forgot about it. But it was disappointing to see the lack of involvement.

There was a parent who wondered why Belvoir doesn't seem to have any issue and Myer does. They blamed it on trying to change the culture (the Murdock effect - that the way she ran things etc).

[Anonymous]

We were at the CDC from 2008-2012. We left just before the first round of allegations.
First, the latest accusation against Ms. Vanessa Taylor do not surprise me. She would have been the first I suspected. My son had her for a year. She is tough. I was in the room once and she didn't know it, and the tone she used with the children was different than the one she used in front of parents. I spoke to the Director, Ms. Murdock about it, only later to find out they were related somehow. When it was time for my older son to transition into that age room, I requested a different room (and got it). My older son told me not to let her take care of his brother because she was "mean". Hindsight being 20/20, I thought it was just verbal and assumed that someone monitored the videos - maybe not at all times, but periodically.
No, they never look until a parent makes a complaint.
When the first round of accusations came out, I was surprised. Ms. Rebecca Smallwood (affectionately Miss BB) didn't seem the hitting type. I have a video of my son crying FOR Miss BB during dinner one night. He really loved her. She was stern but calm, and usually the one that just sat with the kids and read to them or did toys at the table. She wasn't that interactive.
As others have stated, many childcare places have these issues. The pay is poor, and the requirements to get the job are minimal. It doesn't attract the cream of the crop. One reason I chose Ft Meyer was because they had all rooms under surveillance. Too bad no one ever looks at it.
Personally, I had numerous issues over the four years we were there. I frequently emailed Arleta Briner, and later learned that she and Monique Murdock were the best of pals. I took to emailing the base CO only to be blown off. Twice I submitted IG complaints on the place. Each time I submitted an IG complaint, the issue was quickly resolved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
We were at the CDC from 2008-2012. We left just before the first round of allegations.
First, the latest accusation against Ms. Vanessa Taylor do not surprise me. She would have been the first I suspected. My son had her for a year. She is tough. I was in the room once and she didn't know it, and the tone she used with the children was different than the one she used in front of parents. I spoke to the Director, Ms. Murdock about it, only later to find out they were related somehow. When it was time for my older son to transition into that age room, I requested a different room (and got it). My older son told me not to let her take care of his brother because she was "mean". Hindsight being 20/20, I thought it was just verbal and assumed that someone monitored the videos - maybe not at all times, but periodically.
No, they never look until a parent makes a complaint.
When the first round of accusations came out, I was surprised. Ms. Rebecca Smallwood (affectionately Miss BB) didn't seem the hitting type. I have a video of my son crying FOR Miss BB during dinner one night. He really loved her. She was stern but calm, and usually the one that just sat with the kids and read to them or did toys at the table. She wasn't that interactive.
As others have stated, many childcare places have these issues. The pay is poor, and the requirements to get the job are minimal. It doesn't attract the cream of the crop. One reason I chose Ft Meyer was because they had all rooms under surveillance. Too bad no one ever looks at it.
Personally, I had numerous issues over the four years we were there. I frequently emailed Arleta Briner, and later learned that she and Monique Murdock were the best of pals. I took to emailing the base CO only to be blown off. Twice I submitted IG complaints on the place. Each time I submitted an IG complaint, the issue was quickly resolved.

Wow, I wish more parents would chime in. I had no idea about this and the fact that your son didn't want his little brother in there... That is powerful. Glad you listened to him.