Child found dead in daycare van
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A Richmond day care worker is in police custody this evening after a 13-month-old child was found dead this afternoon in a day care center van.
Keishawn L. Whitfield, 23, an employee of the Yellow Brick Road Day Care & Learning Center, will be charged with child neglect, according to a statement by Richmond police.
Police said Whitfield discovered the child after returning to the van. Investigators began looking into the death after receiving a medical emergency call about 4:30 p.m. in the 2700 block of Garland Avenue, where Whitfield lives.
Police believe the child was left unattended for several hours in the van. The cause and manner of the child's death will be determined by the state Medical Examiner's Office.
Investigators are consulting with the Richmond Commonwealth's Attorney's Office about additional charges.
Reader Reactions
“You get what you pray for”. Again what does this mean? Do you mean “pay” for? In any case, Please be empathetic and not pathetic and self centered since this article is NOT about you and how you are glad that it was not in your daycare. Please note that no matter where your child is even with their own parent it is a chance taken since there has been many cases where the parents has forgotten about their own child, so people do not sleep on this issue because it is a serious one.
I worked at a daycare for 7+ years. First things first, why was a 13 month old in the van to begin with. At the daycare I worked at, we never transported the infants, toddlers, or two year olds. You have to have a car seat for each one you transport. Second, it was a man driving the van. I am just wondering why a 13 month old would be with a male teacher anyway. This truly is a tragedy that could have been avoided by just walking the bus to see who was left.
All i will say to RAmgirls posting is that she is so ignorant to even open her hole to say such BS. Death whatever the case is especially in a this case is not and should not be directed to the family. Please remember that people send their kids to daycares all over the world and yes a chance is taken whether it is the best quality one or what you would consider the lowest of quality one. People also pay what they are able to afford unless you are going to pay. Please be empathetic and not pathetic in your commenting on such a sensative matter.
Interesting how a child so young didn’t deserve a “how’s he doing” call from the parent sometime during the day. And the parent didn’t get a phone call inquiring as to why their child wasn’t there that day. Plenty of blame to go around.
This is what happens when you pay people the same amount to take care of children at daycare that they get paid to cook burgers at McDonalds. People want cheap daycare, so the people watching your children standardly make minimum wage. The qualifications that are required are being 18, having valid citizenship and sitting thru a first aid/CPR course that is the same one offered to 13 year old babysitters through the Red Cross. background checks are non exisistant other than to check the Va Sex registry (which any citizen can do online for free) and most start to work the day after they apply. I know for a fact of one day care center in the Richmond area that currently has two recovering drug addicts and a person who is on medication for being bipolar working there taking care of children. If people want and need cheap daycare in order to work, you really cant say much when something goes wrong because these aren’t exactly rocket scientists watching your children. Most are between the ages of 21-25 and have no children of their own so they have no real experience raising a child.
The woman in this article however is beyond stupid. How hard is it to do what bus drivers do at the end of each day and check the seats? Duh. Maybe if they give this woman a harsh penalty then other daycare workers will take the two mins to check all of the seats in the van and stop things like this from repeatedly occurring.
With technology as advanced as it is today, those vans should be equipped with some sort of alarm, bells, horn blowing until all occupants are out of the vehicle. What a horrible tragedy. I will never understand how someone can “forget” a child in the car unless they were high!
This “day care “ person sounds as if she has a hard time being a human being let alone a child care provider. My questions are:
who hired the person?
what qualifications did the care giver have?
are there not some sort of supervision provided on a regular basis?
why was there one child taken out in a van, is not there an overview of who does what, when and where?
Sounds like another long term case for the Virginia Penal System.
Robo
shocking, and it’s par for the course these days, there is no good reason to leave a child, in a van, and forget them, to the point where they die of exposure, the person responsible should spend the rest of their life in prison.
I cannot believe this is still happening, kids being left in vehicles in extreme heat…..how was this child not missed or accounted for? Makes no sense whatsoever…..poor little thing, God Bless her little soul!!!
Lord, I am so happy it wasn’t at my kids daycare! That is just reckless and irresponsible! I wonder with all these youngs “teachers” and “assistance” do they have any training at all or is it just cheaper to hire family and family friends to get the job done? You get what you pray for, but I just pray this doesn’t continue to happen and especially not at my babies daycare!!!
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