I still have chills and memories about it to this day but when I worked at a licensed daycare I was part of an incident involving a lost child. I suppose I am writing this partially because I want to vent and partially because I am interested in the thoughts of others on this issue. Please read my story and if you respond, please do it sincerely as I believe that this kind of freak accident could happen to anyone. Thank you.

My last day at the facility (the day of the incident and the the day I got fired) as an assistant teacher has been on my mind for the past two years and is as follows:

I arrived at work on time. Not early and not late. At this point I had worked at the facility for nearly 3 months and with constant praise from the lead teachers I worked with because I was a "natural" at my job. Just to say, I had worked at McDonald's previously and was never praised for my work so I knew it was sincere job appreciation.

Anyhow, I was just about to report to my usual room (the 2 year olds) until the director came up behind me and said that I should go to the 3 year old room because a few people called in sick and they needed my help in that room all day.

When I got in the room I was greeted by the lead teacher and another assistant. We supervised the kids for about an hour together before the lead teacher ended up going to another area of the building (sometimes she doubled as administrative staff).

She left us instructions about how the rest of the day should go and so two assistant teachers (one being me and another girl) lead the room for the rest of the day with the lead teacher only checking back occasionally.

Some things to keep in mind are that: I had never worked with these specific kids so I didn't know their names or their personalities. Heck, I had never worked with the 3 year old age group ever before that day. I barely realized there was a ratio difference to keep in mind between adults and children in the room. I also did not realize at the time how different the daily routine was from the 2 year old group nor did I realize the behaviors of the kids were a lot different than the 2 year old group that I was working with on a daily basis.

Because of this, the kids got into a bigger mess when they did their shaving cream activity, it was harder to address their toileting needs because it wasn't as simple as changing diapers, and they wouldn't listen to me as well when I tried to direct them or discipline them etc.

Even though I ended up in that room most of the day, during nap time I left the room (on the director's request) to go to the 4 year old room for nap time to relieve another worker for their lunch break. Even though most of the kids were to sleep, some where not and I was instructed to sit when them at their cot and help them get to sleep. I had never been in the 4 year old room until that day as well. As soon as the lady's lunch break was over I left the 4 year old room and headed back to the 3 year old room.

Essentially, I had missed the 3 year old's lunch time and most of their nap time. I came in to the kids waking up and having snack time after nap time.

Fast forward to the end of the day when me and the other assistant teacher took the 3 year olds out to play on the fenced-in daycare playground. At this point, the lead teacher was no longer checking in on me and the other assistant teacher every so often because for whatever reason, I overheard the director let her go home early that day. Anyhow, me and the assistant still had 8 or 9 children outside on the fenced-in playground. The ratio of kids to adults was 1 to 7 (which I later found out that it should have been 1 to 5 for my state standards because in an effort to shuffle kids around to maintain ratio they had to mixed two 2 year olds in with the group of 3 year olds I was watching). Anyow, we were all outside. Again, because this was only was this the first time I had ever been with the 3 year old group, I obviously had never been outside with them either. I didn't know how rough they played or that they liked to hide on certain equipment, or that they wouldn't behave for me when I told them to line up (although now I think I should have seen that coming since the rest of the day didn't go smoothly).

So little did I know, the facility was so short on help that day that they were just waiting for the group of 3 year olds I was watching to dwindle down to proper ratio in order to have the assistant I was with ditch me for another room so that I was completely left alone with these kids and it was "acceptable" because then I'd be in ratio and of course had the standard background check when I was hired.

I remember feeling at the time that I was unsure of the other assistant leaving me alone because I didn't know the children very well or even their names. I briefly brought this up to the assistant and another employee that happened to come on to the playground to visit and they both bullied me into thinking that everything was going to be fine because it was 2 hours till closing and all I had to do was bring the remaining 7 children inside in 15 mins and watch them in that room till the parents came to get them. So with those thoughts, when I was in ratio, the other assistant teacher left me as the director had told her to do in order for her to go to another room.

I nervously watched the kids play for the next 10 mins and then decided I should have them line up at the gate to go inside because I didn't even have a watch on me and didn't want to stay outside alone any longer. When I told the kids it was time to go in and line up, most of the 7 kids lined up, but a few were running around the yard as if they were playing tag with me. I could only call one by name because she was from the 2 year old room and when I called her by her full name she lined up. I didn't know the other 3 year olds names and I was not left with a roster when I was outside so it was harder to verbally discipline them to stop running around and line up.

Finally, but some miracle I was able to get them all lined up and did a head count before opening the gate to go inside. I counted 6 children and somehow I forgot to count the 7th. I attribute this to an overwhelming amount of factors some of which were that I didn't know he might have been hiding on the playground equipment (even tho I swear I checked it before lining the kids up) I think he must have slipped out of sight when the other kids were running around after telling them to line up.

Another theory is that when another employee came to visit them on playground she took the 7th kid for an errand because he wanted to go with her (this was facility was on the smaller side so things like that happened). I know it's hard to follow but if I didn't accidentally leave the 7th child on the playground because he was hiding, then perhaps this employee took the child for an errand and when she returned to the playground I had already gone inside with the other children so she dropped the child off in a different room.

At any rate, I didn't realize the child was missing until a half hour later when his father showed up to pick up his child. What makes matters worse is I barely knew the child's name or what he looked like when his father asked where he was.

It only took a matter of 5 or 10 mins at the most to find the child. I would say more like 5 even though it felt like an eternity. I can't tell you where they found the child because I was in complete shock and didn't hear exactly where they found him. I don't believe it was on the playground. I think he was playing in another room with a bunch of children either because he found his way there or because whoever found him, dropped him off in the wrong room.

My first thought was not a thought at all. It was pure shock. Nothing of the sort had ever happened under my watch before at this facility or at any other facility or personal experience watching children. It was truly a freak accident. During those five minutes when I processed what happened my mind turned from shock to horror and anxiety as I thought what could have happened to the kid. What if for some reason he tried to climb the fence and fell and injured himself or even worse what if he made it over the fence and died trying to cross the busy road etc.? Would I be held legally responsible? Would I face jail time for manslaughter or child endangerment all because of a freak accident? I was paralyzed with fear for the child and for myself.

Well, about 10 mins after they found the child and the director had talked to the father, the director called me into her office and fired me on the spot. I can't say I saw that coming because she did it so calmly and because I was a very naive person who thought just perhaps I would be given a second chance because I was so highly praised by all the lead teachers who worked there.

Thinking about it now, I am quite lucky that no legal trouble came from any of it. I left the facility in tears immediate after the incident (which was coincidentally the end of the day anyhow) and I never looked back.

I am not asking for sympathy. I already feel like the worst monster in the world for what happened under my watch. That being the case, no matter what flack I get for saying this, I truly believe it was as much fault of the daycare facility as my fault for what happened. I wish when she was explaining why they had to "let me go" that they would have owned up for some of the responsibility for losing the kid. I was in such shock so I didn't speak out either. I was going to get fired anyhow so I prob. should have gave them a piece of my mind about how they were endangering the kids in the first place by their unfair business practices of allowing the lead teacher to not only leave the room all day, but to let her go home early for an unknown reason, for not only knowing leaving me alone at full ratio with a group of kids that I didn't know but leaving me alone with them OUTSIDE at a crucial transition period, etc.

I guess I'm going to close this post by saying if you stuck with me through this entire story, thanks for listening to me vent and if you have anything to say I'm open to hearing it (after all I made the decision to post this here).

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