News

Actions

State investigating Creative Kids Day Care after parents say they left their child in pain for hours

Posted at 5:53 PM, Aug 08, 2018
and last updated 2018-08-08 18:01:24-04

HUDSONVILLE, Mich. -- A state agency is investigating a day care in Hudsonville for at least the tenth time since 2014.

The Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs has another investigation into Creative Kids Day Care, located at 5692 School Ave. in Hudsonville. This time officials are responding to initial parents' complaints, that their 18-month-old daughter's elbow was dislocated at the day care, but no employees notified them or made an incident report.

The LARA website also publicly shares its previous special investigation reports, citing Creative Kids Day Care violations from 2006 to this February: detailing neglect, verbal abuse and unsanitary conditions.

Marrissa Lacombe and Tylor Ching tell FOX 17 they pulled their 18-month-old daughter Milaya from the day care last Friday. Lacombe recalls her daughter's July 17 injury saying they're shocked with how the employees handled it.

"[Milaya] came out and she was screaming, and [Creative Kids Day Care employees] said that she was just exhausted," said Lacombe, recalling July 17 when she picked up her daughter. "And I’m like my child has never acted like that when she’s just tired."

"Then I got home and I went to go take her out of the car seat, and I pulled that arm and she finally stopped screaming once we got home."

Lacombe and Ching took Milaya to the hospital that night, where they say doctors reset her elbow.

At the time of their daughter's injury, Lacombe wasn't only a parent at Creative Kids Day Care, she was an employee from August 2017 until she quit this Monday. She says she was in disbelief with how her coworkers never notified her when she was just a room away, and then how her bosses responded.

"I was close with [staff] and I figured that they could tell me everything," said Lacombe, "I was right next door, I figured if there was any problems they could just come over [...] but instead, [Milaya] had to sit there for three hours and suffer and no one said a word to me, nothing."

"When I went to go talk with Sam and Jenny [the day care's Director and Assistant Director] the next day, they said that they noticed that workers tend to slack with workers’ children. I just think with the allegations last year and then this, it’s not okay: stuff’s just going to keep happening, they’re going to keep covering stuff up, they’re going to keep doing what they can to keep the place in business."

The couple tells FOX 17 two day care employees were suspended two days for Milaya’s elbow injury, but add they never saw video surveillance or got an incident report regarding their daughter's injury. They also shared other scary things that happened at the day care.

"The Friday before there was an incident where [Milaya] had scissors because one of the workers put them in front of her during snack time, and she had them and the worker didn’t know," Lacombe recalled.

Last Friday, Lacombe and Ching removed Milaya from Creative Kids Day Care.

"It's definitely harder for me to think about her going back to day care," said Lacombe. "I know that all centers aren’t like this."

"It's hard to trust another day care, going from our experience with Creative Kids," said Ching, sitting beside Lacombe.

In October 2017, Creative Kids Day Care was under close watch from the state, with violations from verbal abuse to neglect. FOX 17 spoke with a mother at that time who says her seven-month-old son was left unattended, with his clothes soaked from saliva.

LARA officials told FOX 17 Wednesday that Creative Kids Day Care in Hudsonville reported this elbow injury to the state on Aug. 6; however, officials said law requires day cares to report an incident like this within 24 hours. The state's investigation is ongoing.

FOX 17 called Creative Kids Day Care for comment twice, and its owner Diane Newenhouse hung up on FOX 17 each time.