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Preschool and Daycare Discussion
To the Parents of the 2-Year Old Girl Who Was Left Alone today at P St Playground by JCC in Dupont
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Anonymous
I completely agree with this post. The teachers should be fired. Many preschools are not run in a professional manner. The emotional connections between the staff are so strong that they will rationalize and protect each other in ways that are not only unprofessional but undermine the quality of care. The director should be fired as well for thinking that putting a note in the teacher's file is an appropriate course of action. The long list of new protocals is just window dressing. The existing protocals, if the teacher had followed them, would have protected againt this incident. We shouldn't forget that there are two actionable offenses going on here. 1. The JCC teacher left the child at the playground. 2. The JCC teacher had no awareness for at least 30 minutes that one of her young children was missing. The teachert never noticed and who knows how long it would have been for her to become aware that the child was gone. Again, the long list of new protocals will not address having a teacher so disengaged that she doesn't even realize one of the kids is missing. |
Anonymous
No, public and public charter schools are under the supervision of other agencies, such as the Public Charter School Board. |
Anonymous
| The director should be fired. I agree with that statement 100%. I was actually surprised that they didn't fire her immediately... |
Anonymous
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this is ever so sad. holy shyt is right. but DCjcc's staff have a tendency to talk to each other and NOT pay very close attention to the kids. less personal socialization and more time with the kids.
this is unacceptable, a head count should be done before during and after. |
Anonymous
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@ Anonymous:
My daughter was not afraid to go back but she was not happy either. Of course, she had just had 4 days of undivided attention on my part (I took days off from work after this happened) so I was not expecting an easy "back to school". Do I find the response from the school OK? Not really. A lot of new rules. Most not really thought-through, not vetted by any outside expert. They've denied my request for another teacher in the class until September (after agreeing to it the day the incident happened). They are still going out to the park with only 2 teachers for 16 kids (the legal ratio inside but not outside a school). My feeling is that they are just hoping that this (and I eventually) will just go away. They are of course correct -- There is an "incident fatigue".. I am waiting to see what comes out of a meeting happening at the school on Wednesday. Not overly optimistic. Why do I keep my daughter there? I have no real alternative day care for her. Plain and simple. |
Anonymous
Can you please let us know if the teachers that left your child, are still working there? |
Anonymous
Wow, I'm the PP who asked about your daughter. I'm so sorry to hear the real story behind the JCC's reaction. As I feared, it was all talk talk talk, and no serious action. Have you started looking for the fall? Good luck, and I'm glad to hear she's doing OK. |
Anonymous
OP I'm so sorry too. There is such a shortage of daycare in this area that there is absolutely no incentive for any staff accountability. The director's and teacher's primary fear is that they may lose their jobs. All they are doing is trying to blow smoke in the hopes it will all blow over. They are watching to see if any parents do decide to leave but with limited openings and options in their area there probably will not be any mass exodus. The director will use the fact that large numbers of parents did not leave to justify her actions in keeping incompetent teachers and continuing to mismanage the center. You could try to see if you can push the issue with more legal and regulatory recourse. You could contact the licensing authority and make sure that they have the full facts. The director may have reported it but it sounds like she put her own spin on it and was not including all relevant details. She wrote about the "scuffle" and that a count was not done walking back to the classroom. She omitted that no one at her center ever noticed the child was missing back in the classroom. The 30 minutes, which could have been hours, had other people in the park not called the police, is a significant detail. If she has already filed a report and omitted important details there could be more reprecussions. You could also talk to the people who called. You may have already contacted them to thank them and I'm sure that they would be happy to help. The "scuffle" may be a complete lie and story they came up with to explain their actions. Again, if the people at the park report back that the caregivers were inattentive and not paying attention, that no scuffle occurred, or maybe they never even counted the kids once then you may have more recourse. You could also contact the police department. If a parent had abandoned a child at a park there would be charges of child endangerment. You could insist on pressing charges against the daycare center employees. |
Anonymous
I would talk to the director and make her aware that you are considering filing a lawsuit in civil court for damages of stress for you and your child. Make the director aware that to help alleviate that stress a 3rd teacher will help. |
Anonymous
Call licensing over and over again. Keep following up with them. Every time you note even a hint of noncompliance, report the center. Document everything. You think you'll remember details later, but you won't. Write down dates, times, people's names and contact information, locations,...... Go above the director's head. Explain that the promises made were not kept and ask that the director be replaced. She absolutely should have been fired for this as should both of the teachers. I'm telling you as a former teacher and preschool/daycare director that there is no excuse for what happened to your daughter. There is no way to justify losing a child for that length of time. The fact that the director is still working at the daycare says a lot about the quality of the organization. |
Anonymous
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I wouldn't send my kid here as long as this director was still working at the center! She's dangerous, and obviously not doing her job correctly.
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Anonymous
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in general, it makes sense to focus on the director as the responsible party for an incident like this. with the JCC, though, i think it makes more sense to blame the CEO (arna) and the CPO (josh). they are the ones who control the budget and are likely denying the director (sarah) the resources she needs to run the school appropriately. my child attended the J and while i would certainly be directly interfacing with sarah over this, i really wouldn't expect that conversation to be productive if it involved staffing levels or anything budget related.
to the mom of the little girl: i would insist on having an audience with josh or arna over this. if i were sarah (the director), i would be a little worried about the upper management hanging me out to dry over something like this. she would be an easy scapegoat for their mismanagement. they are the ones who are under-funding the school. |
Anonymous
| Hard for outsiders to ever know the person or persons most responsible for creating the circumstances that allowed this to happen. Still, if no one is fired, that means, literally, losing your child in the city is within the bounds of acceptable performance. Not good. |
Anonymous
| God, I would spontaneously combust if this was my child. How horrible. |
Anonymous
You might contact the First Baptist Church Child Development Center at 17th & O and take a tour. It's geographically very close to the JCC. I know that they are losing some of the older kids to DC & VA preschools. Don't know how long the wait list is but it might be a good alternative for your daughter. |