A day care worker in South Florida has been charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child after leaving a two-year-old girl in a vehicle for more than seven hours on an August day.
The girl died in the overheated van parked outside of Katie's Kids Learning Center, a West Palm Beach day care facility now closed.
Her parents have filed a lawsuit against the owners of Katie's Kids. There has been no civil claim filed yet against the worker who left the girl in the van.
Care, Protection, Supervision
Florida law defines child day care as "the care, protection, and supervision of a child, for a period of less than 24 hours a day on a regular basis, which supplements parental care, enrichment, and health supervision for the child, in accordance with his or her individual needs, and for which payment, fee, or grant is made for care."
It seems clear that no matter what the results of the criminal and civil cases, the day care center and its employee did not provide "care, protection and supervision."
A charge of aggravated manslaughter is a felony involving negligence resulting in the death of a child under 18 years old.
Dangerous Negligence
The issue of negligence is certain to play a role in this day care tragedy, as it does in so many others. When day care workers neglect the children and their duties to the kids, they place the children in clear danger.
Day care workers must go through state-sanctioned training and then receive a license in order to take care of kids in Florida. In this instance, the worker was supposed to double-check the van to make sure no kids were still inside. For some reason she has yet to explain, the worker failed to do this critical task on the day in question.
Employer Liability Issues
In Florida, employers are not always legally liable for the actions of their employees. Three criteria must be met before an employer becomes liable for something their employee does or does not do:
- The act must take place at the place of employment during business hours
- The act must be relevant to the kind of work the employee is hired to do
- The employer must benefit from the act or attempted act of the employee
If a jury finds the employer liable for the employee's act, the parents may be able to seek compensation from the daycare owner's assets for medical expenses, funeral expenses and pain and suffering.
Parents who have lost a child or had their child suffer a serious personal injury, such as choking on food or being hit by a car because of a day care worker's negligence or even intentional acts such as child sexual abuse, should contact a Florida personal injury attorney who is experienced in fighting for injured children for an assessment of the facts and advice on legal options in the matter.
