"Our Little Darlings" day care forgets toddler on beach

[Liberal_in_LA]

Toddler Forgotten on New York Beach, Say Police

Police and parents are trying to figure out why staff of a New York-area day care facility left a 2-year-old girl at the beach after a trip there, then waited three hours to alert authorities the child was missing, Long Island State Park Police said.

“In between that three hours, we were calling the local precinct, all over the place,” said Capt. Bruce Marx of the Long Island State Park Police.

Police say they believe Our Little Darlings Day Care, of Bay Shore, N.Y., left the Hecksher State Park beach at around 3:10 p.m. on Tuesday with a group of children, but without the 2-year-old girl.

A mother, who watched the toddler play with her kids, realized something was awry when she got ready to leave at around 3:30 p.m. and could not find anyone to claim the child.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/08/toddler-forgotten-on-new-york-beach-say-police/

[HockeyMom]

1. I have refused to take any child,

or DD adult, to a BEACH as a TA. A confined pool with a lifeguard? Ok. A beach is too big, too open, and very dangerous. I told them, fire me if you don't like that.

Yes, on Long Island too. Yes, I know that State Park too. Never, never would take them there. VERY BIG. Is this Day Care Center crazy?

[HopeHoops]

2. WTF? My wife needs to have the kid count in her HEAD at every moment.

How the FUCK could you lose a toddler like that? Then again, the workers probably only get $8/hr (if they're lucky).

[treestar]

3. You have to do head counts on that kind of thing

What where they thinking?

A very bad mistake.

It reminds me of the one a while back where some toddlers "escaped" from a day care and were found unharmed in a nearby backyard.

[Liberal_in_LA]

4. It seems it took them 3 hours to know they were missing.

[treestar]

5. That's really bad

They need the check to be for the bus or minivan. Goodness, makes it scary to think of my niece's school going on a trip to a farm - 2 and 3 year olds - they made it back and we picked them up then - so it's worse if pick up time isn't right after the trip - this school needs some bad sanctions.

[AtomicKitten]

6. A 2-year-old? OMG my head would have exploded.

When my son was in kindergarten, I came to pick him up and he wasn't there and nobody had a clue where he was. I went ballistic. Turns out somebody had herded him onto a bus that goes to a daycare I didn't use. Needless to say, the school exerted a teensy more oversight from that point on.

[gollygee]

7. So many questions. First, who takes a bunch of toddlers to the beach?

Ack!

When mine were 2 I had to almost hold their hands the whole time I was there to keep them from running into the water.