A daycare worker scrawled a note across a tot’s belly to remind his mother to bring him new diapers, the outraged mom said this week.
Heather Chisum, of Sanibel Island, said she was changing her 18-month-old son, Milo, Monday when she found the message, written in dark marker on his skin.
Chisum posted photos to Facebook that evening of the disturbing “note” and sought her friends’ opinions.
“Mom I’m out of diapers,” the message said. “Pls read my report.”
The “report” refers to a daily message placed in Milo’s lunch box by staff at the Children’s Education Center of the Islands, outlining his mood that day, what times his diaper was changed and if he needs diapers or wipes, Chisum said.
“I guess yesterday they wrote on his report that he needs diapers, and I failed to see that,” Chisum wrote. “Now keep in mind, I see several teachers at drop off and several at pick up. If I failed to see that he needs diapers a simple, ‘Hey Heather, your son needs diapers, maybe you missed the report’ would have done the trick.”
“In the very worst case scenario, I can’t see anything other than ‘need diapers’ needing to be written,” she added. “Why a big long message needed to be written across my son’s stomach is beyond me.”
In a statement issued to the News-Press, Cindy Carter DeCosta, executive director of the center, said the teacher was fired.
“We are aware of the incident at the school, and we are terribly sorry for the distress it has caused the family involved as well as all of our families,” DeCosta said. “It was a breach of our professional ethics on the part of the teacher.”
“The school has taken immediate action to remove the teacher from the school,” she continued. “We are reviewing protocols already in place to ensure that nothing like this occurs again.”
By Wednesday morning, Chisum’s post racked up about 22,000 likes, 30,000 shares and 280 comments — most validating her concerns.
Chisum, who also has a 3½-year-old daughter, Finley, told the News-Press she is taking the rest of the week off to seek out another daycare for the tots.
But it’s a difficult task in the small vacation community where she lives on the Gulf of Mexico.
“There’s no other place on the island for someone as young as [Milo] is,” she said.