(Memphis) Chism Family Learning Center, an in-home daycare, sits off Holmes Road in South Memphis.
The center, which focuses on kids, was the focus of federal agents going in and out with boxes Thursday.
A police car guarded the driveway.
County Commissioner Sidney Chism lives in the area and drove by as the raid went down.
He was quick to tell WREG this Chism Daycare has nothing to do with him.
“Not at all. I am not related to this side of the Chism klan, not one way or the other. I don’t own anything with them. I have one daycare my wife owns on Horn Lake Road. That’s it. Nothing else,” said Chism.
Commissioner Chism is already under fire and has been the target of an investigation over not disclosing his family’s daycare interests as he voted on daycare-related funding on the County Commission.
That issue apparently isn’t related to these raids, which Chism says he knows nothing about.
“Whatever they doing they got their day in court. Whatever this is all about. I don’t know,” says Chism.
The Chism Family Center on Holmes Road is owned by Sylvia Lloyd-Chism and was licensed in 2009. It cares for up to 7 children.
One woman told us the owner contacted her about keeping her grandson.
“She just told me she keeps a lot kids that are special ed kids with special needs and he will have all the attention he needs. She was a very nice lady though,” said the woman.
No one knows why the centers including the Chism Child Care Enrichment Complex on South Third have been targeted.
Investigators aren’t saying, leaving parents, who were told to come pick up their kids, wondering.
“All these cop cars, undercover and things like that. That don’t seem like just like no ordinary situation to me. That’s all,” said Jeremy Banks who has a son at one of the daycares that was raided.
Parents at the Chism Child Care Enrichment Complex on South Third say they’ve been told the center is closed until further notice and they can talk to DHS about finding another daycare.