|
On March 20, 2025, the Office of Childhood (OOC) received an allegation that: On March 19, 2025, staff member Elizabeth Skidmore put an unknown pill in Child A's bottle, swirled it around, then gave it to Child A. When Child A was done drinking, Elizabeth took the bottle, and made a statement about finding a pill in the nipple. Child A was later taken to the hospital for blood in his stools. After conducting an investigation, Compliance Inspector (CI) Michelle Honea has found this allegation to be substantiated based on the following evidence:
5 CSR 25-500.192(3)(B)., which states: "All medication shall be given to a child only with the dated, written permission of the parent(s) stating the length of time medication may be given."
AND
5 CSR 25-500.102(1)(A)., which states: "Child care personnel shall be of good character and intent and shall be qualified to provide care conducive to the welfare of children."
On March 20, 2025, CI Honea interviewed teacher Elizabeth Skidmore who stated that she had been at the daycare for one month and no prior daycare experience before. She is primarily assigned to the infant / toddler room. Child A was provided premade bottles. She wanted to help Child A with pain and put a teething tablet in the bottle without permission from the parents. She keeps this medication in her car and brought it inside in her pocket. No one knew she put the tablet in the bottle. Child A is not on solid foods so she put the tablet in the bottle but did not think Child A would have a reaction. She offered the bottle to Child A after the pill was put into the bottle in the morning, but Child A refused the bottle so she put it back in the refrigerator. Caregiver Hanna offered the bottle to Child A again right before lunch. She took the bottle from Child A and noticed the pill had not dissolved. She panicked and decided to say something because she thought Hanna would see the pill. She made it seem as if the parents put something into Child A's bottle instead of her. Hanna took a photo of the pill and then she cleaned out the bottle. She has not given any teething tablets or any other medication to any other child. CI Honea observed a screen shot photo provided by Elizabeth Skidmore of a bottle of teething tablets that she stated were like the tablets she put in Child A's bottle.
On March 20, 2025, CI Honea conducted an unannounced inspection to the facility and interviewed Director Erika Huntsman and teacher Hanna Smith who provided a written statement instead of an interview due to her having to maintain ratios in the classroom.
Erika stated that she did not know that Elizabeth gave anything to Child A. Child A had no medication from the parents on the premises. After Caregiver Hanna went to Erika to let her know about finding the pill in the bottle, at the end of the day Erika started looking through video footage. She noticed that Elizabeth was in the corner with another child, Child B (21- months- old) at 8:47 AM but because of a blind spot, it was hard to determine what was happening. A few minutes later on the video, Elizabeth gets one of Child A's (11- months- old), bottles out of the refrigerator and walks over to the chair to sit down. Elizabeth then opened Child A's bottle and then closed the lid and puts the bottle back into the refrigerator. She does not allow teachers to open the bottles at all, and bottles are made in the kitchen. Parent A provides premade bottles. She was told about the tablet found in the bottle and Hanna took a photo of the tablet. The tablet had a grape / berry smell and was pinkish in color. She reached out to the parents and they denied putting anything in Child A's bottles. She threw out the tablet. She had concerns about Elizabeth not wanting to take breaks or have assistants in the room with her. Elizabeth only worked at the facility for 4 weeks and has now been terminated.
On March 20, 2025, CI Honea observed a photo of the pinkish tablet that was taken by staff of the tablet found in Child A's bottle. CI Honea reviewed text messages between the Director Erika Huntsman and Parent A, along with a text message between Director Erika Huntsman and teacher Elizabeth Skidmore. CI Honea reviewed video footage provided by the daycare from the morning of March 19, 2025. CI Honea reviewed files for Child A, Child B, and Child C. CI Honea did not observe any signed medical forms allowing teething tablets or any other medication to be provided to Child A.
On March 20, 2025, CI Honea observed a screen shot photo provided by Elizabeth Skidmore of a bottle of teething tablets that she said was like the teething tablet she gave Child A. She did not have the exact bottle of pills she gave Child A with her.
On March 20, 2025, CI Honea observed two photos of different tablets, which was provided by Law Enforcement. One of the photos was of a bottle of teething tablets that appeared to be white in color. The other photo was a bottle of melatonin that appeared to be pinkish / purplish in color.
The determination was that melatonin was provided to Child A and not a teething tablet due to the color of the tablet found in Child A's bottle that matched the photo of the melatonin tablet, not the photo of the teething tablet.
On March 21, 2025, CI Honea reviewed the video footage provided by the facility which showed teacher Elizabeth Skidmore stand up, walk around the chair with her hands in her shirt pockets. Elizabeth then leaned over taking her hands out of her pockets and holding onto Child B. In the video footage you can hear Child B screaming while teacher Elizabeth has her left hand on the back of Child B and her right hand in front of Child B's face. The video footage did not show conclusively that Elizabeth put anything in Child B's mouth. A few minutes later on the video, teacher Elizabeth gets one of Child A's (11- months- old), bottles out of the refrigerator and walks over to the chair to sit down. Elizabeth then opened Child A's bottle and then closed the lid and puts the bottle back into the refrigerator.
On March 21, 2025, CI Honea conducted a phone interview with Parent A (parent of Child A), who stated that she was at work when she was sent a message through ProCare with a photo of the pill and was told that it was found in Child A's bottle. The director had concerns about the tablet. Parent A had not put anything in Child A's bottle, so she contacted the police. Parent A took Child A to the doctor and all reports showed negative to Benadryl, Tylenol, or any other drug substance. The doctor was unsure of what the medication was. She will not take Child A back to the facility.
On March 21, 2025, CI Honea conducted a phone interview with Parent B who stated that the facility made her aware of the situation. Child B was taken to the doctor as a precaution and asked if Child B needed to be drug tested. The ER does not test for melatonin, so Child B was not drug tested.
On March 21, 2025, CI Honea conducted a phone interview with Parent C who stated that she had a few concerns about the daycare in the last week but no concerns before. Child C has acid reflux and had been throwing up during the day after feedings and this was not happening at home.
On April 16, 2025, CI conducted a follow up interview by phone with teacher Hanna Smith who stated that on the day of the incident Elizabeth was acting oddly and not talkative. She did not see the tablet in the bottle when she provided Child A the bottle right before naptime. She was not aware anything happened at the time until the tablet was found by Elizabeth. She took a picture of the tablet, and the tablet had a grape / berry smell. She checked the rest of the bottles to make sure nothing was in them. Elizabeth said several times that the tablet was a Tylenol. She notified the other lead teacher and the director about the tablet. Child A went to sleep after that faster than normal. She never saw Elizabeth put the pill in Child A's bottle.
|