Mom says 4-year-old was stuck in the heat after getting locked out of preschool

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Covington mom says her four-year-old daughter got locked out of her preschool during playtime and wasn’t discovered by workers until she went to pick her up at the end of the day.

The mom, who didn’t want to be identified, said when she arrived at Krayola Learning Academy in Covington just after 5 p.m. on Wednesday, she was told her daughter had already been picked up. The single mom said when she told staff that was impossible, they began looking for the child and found her outside.

“All of a sudden, they are carrying my daughter, whose face and neck are completely red, and she’s being carried into the administrative office,” she said. “They were in there for five minutes and then came up with a story about how she had been distracted.”

She said her daughter told her she was outside with her classmates and was asked to help clean up. She said she did get distracted by a yellow ball and then realized she was locked out of the building. The temperature at the time was in the mid-90s.

“She said she was screaming and crying and that she was hot and that she was very scared and all alone outside, and she kept punching the doors, and she tried to be strong and punched the door and kicked the door,” her mom said.

She doesn’t know how long her daughter was outside, but she said it was long enough for her to fall asleep in a chair. The little girl told her mother she was in a shaded area.

The mother said she contacted local police and Child Protective Services. She said days after the incident, her daughter still had marks on her knuckles from banging on the preschool doors.

“What happened to her is unthinkable, and I’m happy she is alive,” she said.

Krayola Learning Academy owner Rose Stemmon said the four-year-old was transitioning to another classroom when she was left behind.

She said that because it happened near the end of the day, she didn’t believe the child had been outside for very long but acknowledged that mistakes had been made.

“We are supposed to go around and check, especially in the morning and afternoon during transition periods. You know, that’s our responsibility,” Stemmons said.

Stemmons said that because of what happened, she let one employee go, disciplined others, and changed daily procedures.

“We have a transition log, which means they have to sign off, look at the kids in the face, count the children, and do a roll. They actually call the children out when they take them out, and then when we bring them back in, they have to do the same thing,” Stemmons said. They’ve been doing it with tablets, but it got missed, so now they’ve got to do it on a sheet of paper.”

Stemmons has been in business for twenty years and said nothing like this has ever happened to a child. She said Krayola Learning Academy was cooperating with DCS and the Department of Human Services.

“I really feel bad about what happened, and we have taken other measures to ensure it does not happen again,” Stemmons said.

The mother of the four-year-old said a doctor checked out her daughter to make sure she wasn’t severely dehydrated. She said physically, she was fine but was traumatized by the ordeal.

“It’s just very scary and disappointing. I’m praying nobody has to go through this again,” the mother said.

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