Honk News (Chicago, IL) – A family is looking for a new daycare following an incident where an employee reportedly placed a 4-year-old boy in a garbage can for not wanting to nap.
Monica Forte, the mother of the child, shared her thoughts regarding the incident that occurred on January 13 with ABC 7 Chicago. She expressed that she was left speechless, particularly upon viewing the surveillance footage from The Learning Lab in Homewood, Illinois.
A disturbing video released by ABC 7 captures an incident at the Homewood preschool where an employee is seen pulling Grayson, the older of Forte’s two sons, towards a trash can and putting him inside it.
At the daycare that Grayson and his 2-year-old brother have attended for nearly two years, other children were not only present but seemed to observe the entire incident as it happened.
“My first thing was, of course I’m crying,” Forte recalled of watching the footage for the first time. “And I immediately went to the police station.”
Despite their concerns, she and the boys’ father, Justin Barnes, were promptly told that the police were unable to take action, as their 4-year-old son had not sustained any physical harm from the worker.
Despite the Homewood daycare reportedly terminating the employee responsible for placing the child in the trash can, along with another who did not intervene, the parents remain deeply troubled. Their concerns are heightened by the fact that several other staff members allegedly witnessed the incident and failed to take action or report it afterward.
The parents expressed their gratitude to Grayson for sharing his experience, as they might have remained unaware of his struggles otherwise. The Learning Lab, they noted, ought to have informed them prior to his actions.
The daycare employee reportedly claimed to Forte and Barnes that it was merely a joke when asked about the incident, according to the parents who spoke to ABC 7. The security footage reveals a contrasting narrative, leaving the parents questioning how a daycare worker could respond so intensely to a typical situation.
“If you work with kids, I mean, you have to learn,” Forte told ABC 7. “They should know how to deescalate these certain situations when they don’t want to take a nap.”
On January 17, The Learning Lab communicated to ABC 7, stating, “We made efforts to collaborate and be open with the family.” We are collaborating with our licensing agency, DCFS, and the Homewood police department. We have provided more details that came to our attention yesterday, as we feel it requires further examination and potential measures against the individual responsible for this.
Forte and Barnes are contemplating a civil lawsuit against the daycare while actively looking for a new place for their sons, as reported by the Chicago outlet. Concerns are growing regarding their son’s mental health, especially in light of the enduring effects of the embarrassment he faced, given the number of witnesses to the event.
“We just want to, you know, make sure that Grayson is aware that the situation that happened, that, you know, the helper, what she did was wrong,” Barnes told ABC 7. “What he did, he did nothing wrong.”
“It was just way worse than I could imagine,” the concerned dad added. “I’m worried about what he feels.”