Police: Worker tied up toddler
Child-care employee is accused of abuse
A Mesa child-care worker has been arrested and accused by police of abusing and unlawfully imprisoning a 2-year-old.
Lauren Miller, 21, is suspected of wrapping the child in a blanket and tying the ends of the cloth so tightly that the child could not move, according to a Mesa police report released Friday.
The report says a co-worker of Miller’s at Cholla Montessori, a licensed child-care facility at 2243 E. University Drive, Mesa, took photos of the tied-up child and sent them to police on Wednesday.
Police who went to the facility on Thursday found the child tied up in the fashion that was
reported the previous day, the report states.
Mesa police spokesman Sgt. Steve Berry said the child required no medical attention.
“It’s sad to have this happen to a child,” said Victoria Best, founder and executive director of the 11-year-old child-care facility. “I’m sorry.”
Best said she was not at the facility when the child was tied up. She said she does not know why the worker who went to the police did not also report the problem to her.
“We haven’t had problems of this nature before,” Best said. “It’s sad to have a mark on our record.”
The center is licensed by the Arizona Department of Health Services and certified by the Arizona Department of Economic Security.
Health Services Department spokeswoman Laura Oxley said her agency will investigate Cholla once the criminal investigation is completed. It’s unlikely that the department would shut down the facility because of a single police incident, she said, but it could be cited or fined if department policies are found to have been violated.
Reports dating to 2011 on the health department’s website show that Cholla has been cited numerous times for problems including too many kids under the supervision of a single childcare worker and failure to provide water that’s hot enough for hand washing after diaper changes. All the problems were corrected after ADHS inspections, according to reports on the site.
A number of citations show slipshod record-keeping at the center, from failure to keep children’s emergency-contact information to a lack of information about staff immunizations and criminal-background checks.
The most recent citation, issued in September, states that a classroom for 3-year-olds that had 15 children was supervised by just one adult worker. The law requires a child-staff ratio of 13-1 or lower.
One momwhoarrived to pick up her two children Thursday after police came to the facility said she has been happy with the quality of care her kids get at Cholla and did not think she would withdraw them. The woman, who asked not to be named, said a Department of Economic Security subsidy allows her to get child care at Cholla for just $10 a week.
The police report states that Miller told officers the child who was restrained had “ongoing problems with biting the other kids and ... at nap time would run around and wake up the other children.”
The report also states that Miller “did not feel what she did was wrong.”