Reply to Bethesda Lynbrook Child Care kids went missing today

Forum Index » Preschool and Daycare Discussion

Reply to "Bethesda Lynbrook Child Care kids went missing today"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am a parent of a child who has been part of the Lynbrook childcare center for many years. I am upset about the incident that occurred two days ago. It was serious, potentially dangerous and unacceptable. I feel sad and concerned for the children and families who were directly involved in this incident. I am following very closely every step that the Lynbrook Center, MCCA and the external government agencies that are investigating are taking. If I am not satisfied with what I learn, I will remove my child from the center.

However, there have been many allegations about the center made on this forum and others, and I would like to share our experiences at Lynbrook. This incident is inconsistent with our previous experiences at this center over several years. My child has had an overwhelmingly positive experience at Lynbrook. He has been cared for by loving, attentive teachers that have played a large role in his development into a happy, curious, creative child. Just one example: when he started at the center in the two-year-old “Kittens” class, he was shy and lacked the confidence to engage in the activities and talk to the other kids. One of the teachers who has been there for many years had an amazing ability to work with him and help him develop his confidence (please note, this teacher had no involvement with the incident two days ago). I have children who have been part of other child care centers and schools, and many of the Lynbrook teachers are as loving, dedicated and child-focused as any staff that I have encountered anywhere.

I have spent a lot of time with my child’s classes at different times of the day and in different settings (indoors, outdoor play, field trips, etc.) and have never felt that there was anything unsafe about the school. Far from being neglected, I always see the teachers engaging with the children. I have never seen teachers talking on their cellphones while with the children or doing any of the other neglectful behaviors that have been suggested on this board.  While I can’t speak for any other parent of a child at Lynbrook, my informal conversations over the past few days suggest that many others share this view.

Several posters have criticized the play-based approach at this school. There are many different approaches to early childhood education, and there is little reliable evidence to support the superiority of one approach compared to another. I believe that an educational approach that is a good match for my child and family might not be a good match for another child or their family. For our family, the play-based approach at this and other centers has been wonderful, and has helped our kids to flourish. We think our children have developed intellectual, social and physical skills in a developmentally appropriate way. Our oldest child went to a play-based preschool, and is now an avid reader who is doing well in all subjects at school. Other approaches might very well have produced the same result, but I think it is invalid to criticize the school because it has this educational approach.

Clearly, a terrible error took place two days ago, and in no way am I trying to excuse that. It is not clear how much of this due was due to the neglect and/or incompetence of two teachers at that time, or whether there are other system failures that contributed. I do not know what the ultimate outcome will be, but in my view Lynbrook and MCCA seem to be taking the appropriate steps to deal with this at this time. First, the organization investigated and terminated the two teachers involved the day after the incident. MCCA self-reported this incident to the appropriate government agencies and child-care authorities first thing in the morning after this event, and are fully participating in the investigations. The organization had an open meeting for two hours last night (i.e. the night after this occurred) where the director of Lynbrook, executive director of MCCA and president of the board of MCCA met with parents. They encouraged parents to raise any issue and ask any question they had. In my view, they did their best to answer openly and honestly. I believe that the center is committed to making changes to help prevent this from happening again.

I do not know what will happen next, and I am open to making the decision that it is not in the best interests of my child to stay at this facility.  However, I wanted to provide some balance to some of the posts that I have seen about this center by telling about our direct experiences prior to this event.

One final point – I have seen people on other boards criticizing MCCA for consulting with a PR company.  This is a small organization facing a huge crisis. They do not have the in-house expertise in how to deal with media that a large corporation would have.  With many people talking to the media and posting on boards such as this one, I really do not see that they had any alternative but to seek outside help to manage this in the best possible way.
[/quote]

This sounds like a damage control post. To minimize 4 toddlers leaving the center and wandering in the street because in the past you had a good experience really doesn't make sense. You could find a parent who had a great experience in every single center in the entire city but it doesn't mean they are all great centers. I am not sure if you are from the center or just asked to post on their behalf but it would look better for the center if they didn't just brush this off as a little mistake and that otherwise they have a fantastic team and center. This is significant.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics