Firing unfair, day-care boss contends
Staff writer
According to day-care coordinator Stephanie Rempel, no one heard the doorbell ring when a 4-year-old was dropped off at Peabody-Burns High School for day-care Oct. 31.
The child was dropped off by a bus driver at 11 a.m. The driver watched the child ring the bell, then drove away. No one answered the door to let the boy inside. He walked to his grandmother’s house in 50-degree temperatures and 16 mph wind and spent the day there until his mother found him on the street after 4 p.m.
After two special meetings of the Peabody-Burns school board, high school principal Ryan Bartel, Rempel, the school’s day-care aid, and the bus driver resigned or were dismissed.
Rempel said she was fired without having an opportunity to resign.
“We don’t know that he actually rang the doorbell,” Rempel said. “I have not been given any proof.”
It didn’t occur to the school’s day-care attendants to contact the boy’s parents because they thought he had been picked up from morning preschool by a family member, Rempel said.
“Based on the conversation I had with the parent the day before, I was led to believe the aunt had gotten him,” Rempel said. “This happened quite frequently that he was picked up by a family member, so it wasn’t unusual. In hindsight, I realize I should have messaged them.”
The boy’s mother and grandmother work at the elementary school. Day-care is at the high school.
When the boy’s mother came to pick up her two children, Rempel said she had just found her son by the curb with his backpack.
“She thought he had just left day-care early, and we didn’t notice,” Rempel said. “We then said, ‘He hasn’t been here all day. We thought he was with his aunt.’
“She had told us the day prior that her sister would probably be taking him after his Halloween parade at morning preschool, since she was going to be in town.”
Rempel said she regretted not verifying that.
“Looking back to when he would have been there, my coworker and I were both in the room,” she said. “Neither one of us heard a doorbell, nor did eight of my kids, who would all run to the door when it rang.
“We had checked out the window many times, and opened the door a couple times. When he didn’t show up, we didn’t question it, because, again, I was told by the mother the day before that his aunt would likely be taking him after morning preschool.”
On all previous occasions, Rempel said, the bus driver had waited until children were let inside, but that didn’t happen Oct. 31.
“I am not trying to pass blame,” Rempel said. “This situation should have never happened, and never had in my eight years of serving in this position. It’s absolutely not OK that this happened, and my heart breaks for this family.
“There are definitely things that should have been done differently, and I would have liked to be a part of creating a safe and effective process for transferring children from the grade school to the day care.
“Instead, after eight years of never having any sort of disciplinary action, I was not even given the chance to resign, like others were.”
Rempel said she was disappointed in the way the school district handled the situation.
“I love all of ‘my kids,’ and my heart is broken over this,” Rempel said.
Superintendent Antoinette Root is filling in at the junior high and high school office until a new principal is in place.
Other staff members are filling in at the day-care center.