Black Family Says 4-Year-Old Was Left In A Van For Nine Hours In Freezing Temp, Daycare Owner Fires Workers Responsible
Makyia wasn’t found until the end of the day when the driver returned to the van. The employee then drove her home, however, Makyia’s family reportedly didn’t learn of the incident until she told them the story herself after she got home almost an hour late and her mother noticed a change in her after-school routine according to WHAM 13.
“When she got in the house her usual routine is to grab her tablet or grab her mom’s phone but she didn’t do that,” Makyia’s grandmother Brenda Powell told WHEC. “Her mom was laying on the couch under the blanket and Makyia just jumped up right under the blanket with her.”
“Had my granddaughter not told my daughter what happened, we wouldn’t be sitting here right now,” Powell told 13WHAM. “We wouldn’t have known. They wouldn’t have told us anything about it.”
Makyia told her mom that the unidentified driver gave her $3 when they took her home in an alleged plan to bribe the child not to say anything to her family about getting left on the bus. “The driver supposedly said don’t tell mommy that you were left on the bus all day,” Powell said.
Sara Dunbar, the owner of Living Waters Child Care, confirmed that Artis was indeed left on the van and both staff members involved were fired immediately.
“We thought this child was absent — I didn’t know until I actually received a call from the parent saying her child came home saying she was on the van,” Dunbar told reporters. “So it was a really horrible situation and I would never downplay it.”
Dunbar said she had no knowledge of the incident until she got a call from Makyia’s mother. “I wasn’t aware, the staff that works inside, no one was aware that Makyia was even present and pretty much that’s what it led to once things blew up I immediately called and made the report and that’s what we did from that point on,” she said.
The owner maintains that the $3 given to the child wasn’t a bribe. “I guess in the process of transporting her home, the driver, because he does have a compassionate heart he stopped to get her something to eat and he took her home,” she said. “He did give her $3 but it wasn’t a bribery.”
Artis’ family has says that they plan to sue the daycare center and the Rochester Police Department is now “working to determine if criminal charges can be filed in the case.”
Powell now hopes that her granddaughter’s story is as a reminder that parents should question their children about the people who are to care for them.
“Take the time to call the schools and daycare yourself,” she said. “Take this experience that Makyia went through and pick up that phone and call your child’s school and day care and just ask how’s my child day going today so that you know they are in that classroom.”
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