GUILTY TX - Jacob Fox, 4, died in hot day care van, Pleasant Grove, 20 July 2006

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcon.../stories/080206dnmetbalchdaycare.5198b98.html

By MARGARITA MARTÍN-HIDALGO / The Dallas Morning News

Jacob Fox, the 4-year-old Dallas boy who succumbed to heatstroke July 20, apparently died inside a van outside his Pleasant Grove day care center and was then moved to the Balch Springs playground where the center's director called 911, according to a Balch Springs police affidavit.

The affidavit says Jacob's mother told police that day care owner Blynithia Washington picked Jacob up in the day care van at 7 a.m., but he apparently didn't get off when the van reached the day care center. When his brother noticed him missing "sometime after lunch," according to the affidavit, an employee of the Dream House Learning Center went outside and found Jacob, apparently already dead, in the driver’s seat of the van at 10121 Lake June Road.

The affidavit doesn't say how Jacob's body got to Kidstown Pavilion in Balch Springs, and Police Chief Phillip Prasifka wouldn't elaborate.
DallasNews.com/extra

Audio: Hear the two 911 calls made by the Dream House Learning Center

But Ms. Washington called 911 to summon emergency workers to the park about 2:15 p.m., and emergency workers found Jacob in the shade of a piece of playground equipment. Jacob was pronounced dead at 2:59 p.m. at Medical Center of Mesquite.

Temperatures at Love Field reached 100 degrees around noon that day and never exceeded 103. Paramedics determined Jacob's core body temperature was 107.9 degrees, the affidavit says.

I think daycare workers should have to go back out to the vans or buses for a look through once they get all the kids inside. Just as a check-up, poor little guy.

They are supposed to. I used to drive a van for a daycare center summer camp for the school aged kids. There was a whole protocol for the van, and if you followed it to the letter you could never lose one. My coworkers used to think I was obsessive and paranoid, but I think those are actually good qualities when you are dealing with little kids, 100+ degree heat, and cars.

It was assumed that if you counted and had the right number, then you didn't really need to "walk" the van (and look in and under every seat). But more than once I had a parent pick up or drop off a kid right while we were counting and mess up my numbers. Also, a kid who falls asleep in the back seat of a van is invisible from the front. There's no substitute for checking every seat, and no excuse for not doing it.

This is negligence at a bare minimum, IMHO. I see lawsuits.

How awful....I wonder if he tried to get out and couldn't. I agree that this is negligence- how could you not notice he wasn't around for that long of a period?? I used to work at a daycare center and I knew where each and every kid was that I was in charge of. Were they trying to cover it up by going to the park?? If so, that is just disgusting. They discovered him "sometime after lunch" and then didn't call 911 until 2:15?? Most daycares have lunch around 11:30 - 12:00 - and you prepare meals based on how many kids you have for the day, so how did they not realize until after lunch that he wasn't there?? uuggghhh.....this just makes me want to scream. I pray for his family....

From December 2007:

http://www.tdcaa.com/node/1642

A former day-care owner was sentenced to two years in prison Monday for moving the body of a 4-year-old boy, who died from heat exhaustion after being left inside a day-care center van, then ordering her employees to cover up the crime.

Blynithia Washington also received eight years' probation for leaving Jacob Fox in the van on a 104-degree day in July 2006...

Testimony in the five-day trial showed that after Ms. Washington left Jacob in the day-care van July 20, she ordered two employees to take his body to a nearby Balch Springs park. One of the day-care workers testified that Ms. Washington told them not to call 911.

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