WEST POINT, Va. — The owner of a West Point daycare where a toddler escaped and ran into a busy road downplayed the incident in a message to parents a few weeks after it happened, but the mom of the toddler said her statement contradicts video evidence.
The video, captured by a security camera on a house near Creative Critters Learning Center on March 6, shows a two-year-old running out the front door and alongside a nearby road.
One adult is chasing the child but then stops, and then another adult takes over.
“The daycare teacher starts running, and then she stops running, watches him, and then continues to run after him,” said the toddler’s mom, Chandler Madison.
We spoke to Madison last week.
“Devastating. I still don’t like watching it. Scary to think they were not watching my child close enough and did not run after my child fast enough before he got into the main road,” Madison said.
Madison said she immediately filed a complaint with the state.
An inspector with the Virginia Department of Social Services visited the daycare on March 13. They validated the complaint, finding that her child ran through two doors located inside of the building and, although you can’t see it in the video, ended up running into the main road.
“I don’t know what I would have done if I had lost my two-year-old,” Madison said before tearing up.
Someone posted about the DSS violation on Facebook, which prompted the owner of the facility, Kathy Gray, to send a message to families on March 27.
In her message, she said in part: “Yes, the child did run out the door at the center. A teacher was directly behind the child. He was not running down the road nor ever made it to the middle of the road. We were well aware that he was exiting the building as the teacher was right behind him trying to catch up.”
She added that “the teacher did exactly what should have been done, and I am proud of her quick response to him exiting the classroom.”
But Madison said that narrative does not match the DSS inspector’s findings or the video, which she said was brought to her attention after that Facebook post by an anonymous Facebook user about the DSS violation.
Madison said a woman who lives near the facility searched her security camera for the video evidence of what exactly happened after reading the post.
“Without that, light would have never been brought to this situation because I had no other evidence,” Madison said.
Still, owner Kathy Gray told CBS 6 she stands by the statement she sent out to families.
She said that to provide any further information would require her to breach the confidentiality of the family and the child by way of explanation.
Last week, the top official at the Virginia Department of Education said her office reopened a previously closed complaint about the situation because they received new information related to the issue.
The police chief for West Point also said they were investigating.
We are waiting to hear the outcomes of their investigations.
This is the third incident CBS 6 investigative reporter Melissa Hipolit has reported on since November involving a child running out of a daycare and into a nearby busy road. The first was in Henrico in November, and the second was in Chester in February.
CBS 6 is committed to sharing community voices on this important topic. Email your thoughts to the CBS 6 Newsroom.
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