Reply to Accident at St. Albans Early Childhood Center (SAECC)

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Reply to "Accident at St. Albans Early Childhood Center (SAECC) - Tenleytown"

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[quote=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.[/quote]

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