ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — A St. Louis County mother is suing a day care center in north St. Louis County for abuse and neglect after she alleges her two children suffered physical, emotional and mental injuries.
The day care is called A Brighter Future Childcare and Development Center on Chambers Road. Its license has been effective since 2021.
Lawyer Chris Finney represents Diona Harrold-Paige, a mom of two.
He said, "She's very strong. She was able to spearhead this, initiate this and keep it going."
In March, Harrold-Paige said her worst nightmare became a reality.
She picked up her kids from the daycare and noticed her 4-year-old son, who has autism and is nonverbal, had facial scratches and a bump on his forehead.
She demanded to see surveillance footage, took her kids to the hospital and notified authorities about the injuries.
The lawsuit said the two children were aggressively handled, inappropriately disciplined and inadequately supervised.
The allegations claim caregivers hit them with paint-stirring sticks, dragged them on the ground and caused the boy to hit his head on a cot when it was aggressively pulled out from under him.
“What happened at A Brighter Future Childcare and Development Center has shaken our family to the core, and I hope by speaking out and filing this lawsuit, we can protect other children in our community from being harmed,” Harrold-Paige said. “As a trusting mother, I never imagined a day care center would traumatize my young children, especially my son who requires additional support and is unable to communicate. It’s devastating to discover I was wrong and that my children had to suffer.”
According to documents from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Office of Childhood - Child Care Compliance, an investigator reviewed the video.
The lawsuit said the footage showed the primary caregiver hit Harrold-Paige's son’s face and head with their hands multiple times and forced her daughter to stand and face a wall for 47 minutes. Another allegation claimed the caregivers left the children unattended and unsupervised in the classroom 10 times.
Finney explained this breaks Missouri childcare laws.
In the state's documents, the day care's director admitted the center is understaffed. Finney said it's a problem they've been seeing more often since the pandemic.
"The last two to three years we've seen an uptick in the cases and most of them are neglect cases. We ran into places mostly understaffed. They didn't have enough staff to handle what they needed, especially with specialized learning needs, it can get really tricky really quickly if you don’t stay up on the training and your selection of staff," Finney said.
The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Office of Childhood gave the daycare center 21 violations for safety failures between March 2022 and April 2024.
The day care and its attorney did not respond to a request for comment as of Wednesday evening.
Amy Robins with the Children's Advocacy Services of Greater St. Louis gave tips to parents amid a childcare crisis. Robbins recommended asking questions and following your gut and said performing unannounced visits can give insight.
"Make sure they are doing child abuse and neglect checks for their employees or anyone else in the building who has access to kids," she said.
She explained these checks need to be done on an annual basis. She also suggested asking about their codes of conduct and their policies on staff/children interactions.
Robins said, "We would hope most daycare facilities are giving updates or reports. They should be documenting any incidents even if it was by accident, those things should be reported and parents should be getting that update daily and if it doesn't make sense, ask questions about it."
This case could continue for another year and a half. The plaintiffs are looking to be paid for unspecified damages and for the day care center to accept responsibility.
Robins said there is a way to see if licensed facilities in Missouri have prior reports by the state. Here is the link to search for facilities.
Find the full petition filed against A Brighter Future Childcare and Development Center below.
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