MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Hickory Hill daycare is fighting to stay open after a WREG investigation discovered flaws in their system.
We first told you about Building Blocks Academy off Knight Arnold last Spring.
With the permission from their parents a WREG employee was able to remove two children from the daycare when they were not on any approved lists.
The Department of Human Services issued Building Blocks a notice of revocation.
Today was the second day a hearing where an attorney for the daycare and DHS presented to a daycare board
Today we heard from the owner of the daycare along with the mother of the children involved in the WREG investigation.
The mother, Alexus Taylor, says she doesn’t so much blame the daycare but rather the employee who let her children leave.
Taylor testified the last thing she expected was WREG to be able to remove her children from Building Blocks Daycare.
In fact, the whole reason she agreed to let one of our employees attempt to check out her two-year-old and infant was because she was so confident.
Taylor could be seen crying, clearly shaken after her children were able to be checked out by a stranger.
“There’s too much going,” said Taylor.
But today she said after having time to think, she decided keeping her children at Building Blocks was best. She still has faith in the place, in fact her children still go there.
“I was like, this is someone’s business and it shouldn’t be going down the drain from one person’s mistake, because everybody makes mistakes every day,” said Taylor. “It’s just that particular day it was caught.”
The employee who did let the children leave was later fired – although it took some time for that to happen.
The owner, Ronda McDonald, said she didn’t terminate her immediately because she is a Christian, ultimately deciding it was best for the employee to go because she was so fragile and could never get over her mistake.
McDonald, whose facility was also cited for having too many children with one supervisor for 10 minutes, said she went through a corrective action plan.
She believes she provides a safe service to her community.
“I feel like that had happened in reality, yes, give me whatever punishment I need but this was not reality,” said McDonald. “Even though, like you say, protocol was not followed correctly but this was not a real case.”
An attorney for DHS said they do see this as a real case, and it is their job to protect children.
Instead of WREG it could have been a real stranger.
The hearing will continue on December 5. We’ll keep you posted about what happens.
