Last week, in Delray Beach, Florida, attorney Andrew Yaffa filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Katie's Kids day care after a staff member found 2 year old Haile Brockington dead inside the facility's van. Haile and the other children were picked up by the van around 9 a.m. that morning and taken to the day care. After arriving, all the children were taken into the facility - but Haile was somehow forgotten. Also, no one apparently missed her throughout the entire day - despite the fact that both her sisters were picked up by the same van and somehow successfully made it into the building. She was found by another staff member around 4:00 p.m. that afternoon when the driver opened the van to take the children home. Haile was trapped in a completely closed van, in Florida, in the middle of summer, for more than 6 hours - and no one noticed. The medical examiner stated that Haile died from heat stroke.
As you might assume, the owners are not speaking to anyone and the staff is shifting blame from one worker to the next. The driver has been identified as Amanda Lee Inman. It was released that she had only been working there since mid July.
State regulations require day care centers to keep a log of who gets on and off the transport vehicle. "There are regulations that are in place that, if the bare minimums were complied with, this baby would still be alive today," Yaffa said. The lawsuit also suggests there were prior incidents in the past when children had been forgotten. I found one source that said a total of 6 such incidents occurred within the single year the day care has been open. Allegedly, there were also occasions where staff had forged or signed Haile's mother's name to the transportation log book.
Attorney Andrew Yaffa stated that he is adding the owners of the day care, Kathryn Muhammad and Barbara Dilthey to the suit - claiming active negligence. The owners have decided to voluntarily close the facility until the situation is resolved.
We feel deeply for this family and this community.
