Daycare Death and Outrageous Texas Law Loophole
I’m visiting my family in Texas and read about a case that had been filed against a day care center and the outrageous loophole in Texas law that has allowed the day care center to continue to operate.
The lawsuit was filed by Jeff Rasansky, a Dallas lawyer with special expertise in daycare abuse, on behalf of Marcy Orsorio, the mother of two-year-old Isabella Estep. Isabella picked up a pebble from the playground at her daycare center (Woodbridge Day School) and took it inside with her, where she put it in her mouth and swallowed it. Her teacher Mia Jennings did not notice that she had brought a pebble inside, she did not notice that she had swallowed it, and she did not think anything was unusual about Isabella lying unconscious on the floor of her classroom — even though other children in her class gathered around her and tried to open her eyelids.
Mia Jennings did not have a high school diploma, nor did she have any training in first aid. Both are required by the State of Texas. By the time Jennings noticed what was going on, Isabella’s lips had turned blue. Since she had no idea what to do, Jennings could only carry Isabella down the hall to someone who could help her. It was too late.
The Texas licensing agency investigated and found that the school negligent and responsible for Isabella’s death. Such findings are reported and publicized on the agency’s website for two years — something that’s very bad for daycare center businesses. The owner of the day school, Nyse Hall, and her husband Robert, knew about the loophole: If they sell the day school soon, all the teachers can keep their job and the daycare center can stay open — because once the daycare center is sold, the incident is erased from the State’s website and the day school can operate with a clean slate. In other words, the daycare center could go on operating as before with the same personnel, without the incident even showing up on the website where parents would go to find information on the safety record of the school.
The tragic events that came together to cause a little girl’s death were horrible enough, but they are compounded by the Texas law loophole that makes it possible for the day school to go on caring for young children without other parents being able to find out what happened.
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