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‘Totally unacceptable’: Kids help clean bathroom at Midlothian daycare

Posted at 6:43 PM, Mar 19, 2018
and last updated 2018-03-20 07:22:54-04

CHESTERFIELD, Va. -- A Chesterfield mom wants answers after she said her son was asked to clean the bathroom at his Midlothian daycare.

“It had been brought to my attention that my child was at the daycare cleaning, more specifically cleaning toilet seats in bathrooms,” said Dushunna Scott. “He said me and one of my friends we cleaned the bathrooms, and I said what do you mean and he said we cleaned the toilet seats.”

Dushunna Scott said her 5 year old performed that chore Tuesday, at Childtime of Midlothian at 1220 Alverser Drive.

“We’re definitely concerned that has there already been some type of contamination with some type of body fluid,” Scott said.

Scott says she questioned her son after noticing his classmates cleaning when she picked him up.

She immediately wrote the daycare director.

“I saw a child scrubbing the floor with a hand brush and another child with a broom. I don’t believe those tasks are a part of the curriculum,” Scott read from an email she sent the school.

Childtime of Midlothian daycare

“We’re committed to providing outstanding early education and care in keeping with state guidelines. When a child requests to help, we encourage them to do so as a learning opportunity. This typically involves helping serve snacks, putting games and art materials away, pushing in chairs and the like. Last week, a few children wanted to help as a classroom was being tidied. They were in gloves at the time, as they often are when they assist.

"For health and safety purposes, we’ve instructed staff to prevent children from assisting in the bathrooms going forward. Nothing is more important to us than our children’s well being,” Childtime wrote in a statement.

“I want to see some accountability for the actions of the teachers,” said Scott.

Scott said she was told that her Pre-K student was cleaning the bathroom stalls, not the toilet seats.

“My child would not lie to me he does not clean toilet seats at home so for him to tell me he is cleaning a toilet seat I have no reason to believe he would be telling a lie” Scott said.

“The teachers and staff should be cleaning the toilets, not my son cause we pay good money,” said Scott.

Scott says she is all for teaching responsibility and for children cleaning up after themselves but educating her son must come first.

“They’re taking time away from classroom instruction to clean bathrooms and that’s totally unacceptable,” Scott said.

Scott said her son has attended Childtime since he was 18 months old which makes the decision of leaving difficult.

“It’s kind of a hard situation because he does have friends there that he’s bonded with over the years,” Scott said. “If Childtime can step in and really make some changes immediately then he can stay there if I feel his safety and wellbeing is intact. If not, we’re going to need to change and make some decisions.”

Since March 2013, Childtime of Midlothian has been cited with violations from 10 out of 16 visits by the Virginia Department of Social Services. Two of them included the improper storing of cleaning supplies and not ensuring proper hand washing.

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