A six week old infant was found unresponsive at the Elizabeth Home Daycare in Rock Hill, SC. The daycare owner, Elizabeth Caldwell was operating a daycare service from her home where it was soon learned that the daycare was housing four times the number of children and infants as allowed by state law. Lieutenant Brad Redfearn stated that officers were called to the daycare at around 10:51 on Friday.
Emergency responders from Piedmont Medical Center made attempts to revive the infant. Later the infant was transported by the EMS team to Piedmont Medical Center. The infant, 6 week old Zayden Jones later died. The daycare had 20 children in the care of the daycare owner all of which were under the age of five. The home is only zoned to legally have five children, according to Lt. Redfearn.The cause of death is yet to be determined,and there will be an investigation by the Department of Social Services along with the investigations being conducted by the police. The home was given a stop work order posted by Rock Hill City Zoning. According to a relative of the daycare owner, the owner checked on the sleeping infant and discovered that the child was not breathing.
The key question many residents are asking is whether it was greed that killed the child, neglect, or a failure on the part of the proper authorities to follow up on daycare protocol. Zoning laws are only effective if there are methods in place to ensure that they are being observed on a regular basis.
Because these sort of deaths are not necessarily uncommon, one would think that the laws that are set in place to protect this tragedy from occurring would be given a high priority. A single mother and resident of Rock Hill stated " I can't afford not to place my children daycare, but I expect the authorities to ensure my child's safety by having daycare facilities inspected regularly, and randomly, I mean even restaurants have to pass a yearly inspection."
A word to the wise regarding your child and daycare, make sure that your daycare is following all the laws. If you have any doubts, contact your Department of Social Services to find out what you can do.
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