Mom of toddler who let himself out of daycare wants the facility shut down

EATON — The mom whose 2-year-old toddler opened the door at his daycare center in Eaton this week and ended up on a busy road wants the facility closed and the worker responsible for her son’s care that morning fired.

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“I would honestly love if this center were no longer a center,” Devan Van Winkle of New Paris said of Imagination Station Learning Center, 200 Washington Jackson Road in Eaton. “Something needs done.”

Van Winkle’s son opened a side door at the facility Tuesday morning and had made his way onto Washington Jackson Road before a passing male motorist stopped, retrieved the child and turned him over to a woman who lives near Imagination Station. That woman returned the child to the center.

The child, who was not injured or harmed, had been out of the center an unknown number of minutes before he was returned, Van Winkle said she was told. The Eaton Police Department investigation is continuing, an officer said to News Center 7.

Thursday afternoon, Michelle Davison, Imagination Center director and president, issued a statement to News Center 7, which read, in part:

“We have put together a timeline as close to the details as possible. We fully acknowledge our responsibility for this incident occurring.

Unfortunately, this can happen in an instant even within the very best of care. Our deepest apologies to the parents and family of this child. We are completely distraught that this incident has happened and will be working with our governing authority to review the incident and take any and all safety measures to prevent this from happening again.

According to surveillance, the whole incident occurred within a nine minute timeframe. Teaching staff had interaction and eye contact with the child during a classroom transition period. Within a few moments the child was unseen.

Teaching staff immediately looked outside and began searching both inside and outside of the premises. The child was recovered with a neighbor of the center, who resides within approximately 40 feet from her property to our center door.

We want to acknowledge our sincere gratitude towards her. Also, acknowledge the Eaton Police Department, who quickly responded making sure all was safe, again....The child acted unaware of the incident and returned with a teacher to resume his normal morning activity of eating breakfast.”

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Wednesday, in an exclusive interview with News Center 7′s Brandon Lewis, Van Winkle said daycare workers did not immediately tell her that her son had gotten out of the center. The workers came to her job to tell her about the incident.

“They had a really bad look on their faces. I felt they were going to sit me down and tell me he had died or something serious had happened,” she said.

Van Winkle said she was shocked into silence when they told her that her son had managed to open a side door and let himself out, that the room must have been too loud for anyone to hear the alarm, which is supposed to sound when the door is opened, and that daycare workers thought her son was playing hide-and-seek.

“I knew that as a parent that could have been the moment that I needed to start planning my son’s funeral or hanging a missing sign,” she said.

Van Winkle said she has made several requests for the camera footage from the center so she can see exactly what happened.

She’s not happy with the daycare center’s response to the incident and is on a mission to let other parents and the Eaton community know what happened with her son.

“I’m lucky and yes, he ran into two wonderful people but it might not have ended up like that,” Van Winkle said. “I don’t want this to happen to any other child. Ever.”

We will update this story as new details become available.

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