Two employees at a Fulton County day care have been charged with reckless conduct after a boy was left alone on a van for hours, police said.
Two of Lavetta Kitt’s sons have been attending A Step of Faith in Union City for the past 18 months. But when she went to pick them up Tuesday about 11:30 p.m., only her 4-year-old was in the building, she said.
The employee told Kitt her 6-year-old son, Nicholas, wasn’t there when she arrived, she told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The day care owner, Deborah Payne, told Kitt her son never got on the van after school and to call her sister to make sure Nicholas wasn’t picked up, Kitt said.
“Five or 10 minutes later, I called the police and they came and took my statement,” Kitt said.
When Payne arrived at the day care, she immediately walked to the van parked in the lot and found Nicholas locked inside, Kitt said.
He had been in the van about four or five hours, Kitt said, because he was supposed to be brought to the building where she picked him up about 7 p.m.
Nicholas told his mom that he woke up but no one was around so he waited because he didn’t want to get in trouble, Kitt said.
“Nicholas has a disability, so he doesn’t know what to think of this,” Kitt said. “He didn’t think anything was wrong.”
Police recommended Kitt not speak to Payne during the investigation, Kitt said.
Officials at A Step of Faith declined comment, but an attorney for the day care, Rudjard Hayes, told Channel 2 Action News the day care’s policies should have prevented this incident.
The mother said she has taken her boys out of the aftercare program and plans to have her sister pick them up after school and watch them until she can find a new day care.
Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning spokesman Reg Griffin told The AJC that the child care provider reported the incident Wednesday morning. The state is looking into the matter.
“We're so glad that it appears the child is doing well and wasn't harmed as a result,” Griffin said.
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