"Police investigate tot’s troubled trip home" by Patricia Wen |
Globe Staff, January 13, 2013
Lawrence police are investigating a day-care transportation company
for allegedly losing track of a 2-year-old boy for up to two hours
Friday afternoon, before getting the child safely back into the arms of
his desperate mother with little immediate explanation of what happened.
“I need questions to be answered,” said Diana Bermudez, 30, who said
her toddler was sleeping in a urine-soaked diaper and partially covered
in vomit when reunited with her.
The transportation company, Transerve, has since been fired by the day-care center....
Meanwhile, the Greater Lawrence Community Action Council, which runs
the government-subsidized day-care center that the boy, Yamil Cruz, attends, is
notifying families they will have to get their children to day care on
their own until a new service is hired, said a council spokesman, Jason
Kauppi....
After Yamil was reunited with his mother, he was examined at a local hospital and released in good health, the family said.
Bermudez said Friday began like other weekdays since her son began at
that day-care center six months ago: The boy was picked up by the van
service outside the family’s home around 8 a.m., which freed Bermudez to
go to her full-time job as a shift leader at a Dunkin’ Donuts in
Lawrence.
The mother returned in the afternoon, expecting the van to come
around 4:15 p.m. as it usually does. When it did not arrive, she began
making phone calls, first confirming that her son had left the day care
around 3:30 p.m. and then trying to reach Transerve staff to find out
where her son was. Bermudez said she finally got through around 4:45
p.m. to a Transerve secretary who kept putting her on hold, and said she
was having problems reaching the driver by cellphone.
At one point, Bermudez said the secretary said all the company vans
were at the lot, and the mother should confirm that the boy was not
still at the day-care center.
Through all the confusion and panic, Bermudez ultimately went to the
day care center herself, and then received word from the transportation
company that the boy was fine; he would be dropped off by the driver at
the day-care center, rather than the home because the mother — as the
driver allegedly discovered when ultimately pulling up — was no longer
there.
The transportation company owner, Freddy Recio, who says his company is 14 years old and transports some 400 children in Lawrence, said the secretary had
reached the driver by phone in route at some point and asked if the boy
was in the van. The driver, however, mistakenly thought Yamil was a girl
because of his long hair, and allegedly told the secretary the boy was
not there.
Recio said the day-care center’s decision to fire him seems unfair
and he is sympathetic to Bermudez for being upset. “I understand,” he
said.
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