ABILENE, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) - A former employee of an Abilene day care is coming forward with serious allegations against the facility, saying she saw her coworkers give a child benadryl without parental knowledge or consent.
This would not be the first time Maw's Child Care on North 1st Street has been under fire. Since opening in April, the day care has received 21 citations for deficiencies found by the Texas Department of Health and Human Services, including a citation for not properly background checking three employees.
Trystynn Lord says she was only employed at Maw's Day Care less than a month when she witnessed acts that would ultimately drive her to quit, claiming she saw not one but two of her coworkers give an unruly little girl benadryl so she would go to sleep during nap time.
"'Well, I have something to fix that'. . .she goes out of the classroom. . . I have no idea what’s going on, comes back in with a bottle of benadryl, fills the medicine cap up, gives it to her tells her that it’s water so she’ll drink it because she did not want it at first,” Lord explains. And the next day, it happened again.
Lord told KTAB and KRBC what she did after witnessing the dosing for a second time, saying, “I came in for a couple hours the next day, got the parent's number off of the app that we have, and then quit and called her.”
Maribel Sandoval, the mother of the little girl, says she was shocked when she learned what Lord had witnessed.
"It was really hard to process, I just can’t imagine anyone doing that to a child,” Sandoval says. “I had no idea about what was going on there like, uh, if I did, I mean, I trusted these people to watch my kids."
Another employee, who spoke out to KTAB and KRBC but wishes to remain anonymous, says “when I first got there, one of the ladies, she said that they were being investigated for, uh, abuse of the kids."
Maw's Child Care owner, Sondra Mata, released the following statement regarding the allegations:
"As owner of Maw’s Child Care, I am aware of the allegations that have been posted on social media. As a licensed childcare facility, I assure you that we are regulated and monitored routinely by Texas Health and Human Services to ensure we are providing quality care for the children who are left in our care. If there have been any violations founded within the operations of our facility, we are required to post them and make them available to be reviewed by parents/guardians. As the director of the facility, I work hard to provide a childcare program that is affordable with an emphasis on providing a safe setting for social, emotional, and physical development of the children. I want parents to enter/leave our facility with a peace of mind knowing that their child/children are in a loving and nurturing environment. I think we can all agree that childcare facilities across the Big Country struggle with obtaining and maintaining good quality staff, but I assure you that I am monitoring my staff to ensure they are helping us provide good quality services."
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