Mother claims daycare staff left 3-year-old outside alone

The playground, A safe space for kids to dream, quickly became a nightmare for three-year-old Ava after she was allegedly left outside of her daycare.

“We really don’t know how long she was out there,” said Breen Nabors, the girl’s mother.

Nabors says Ava was left outside at daycare. Scared and alone.

“She got left outside. So to me, it seemed like maybe there was like a little bit of PTSD,” said Nabors.

WINK News reporter Maddie Heron spoke exclusively to Ava’s mother, Breen Nabors.

Her daughter was allegedly forgotten on the playground by staff at Wellington Academy in South Cape Coral.

“if they would do it to my child, they’ll do it to another child,” said Nabors.

Nabors said it happened as early as July 5, but she didn’t hear about it until Monday when a teacher at the school finally told her what had happened, more than a week earlier.

She worked quickly to get Ava and her 5-year-old sister out of the daycare.

“I just knew I had to get them out of there. Like, immediately, I just couldn’t believe it. I was in complete shock,” said Nabors.

The Florida Department of Children and Families opened an investigation into the daycare, telling WINK News:

The Department has investigated and issued a licensing citation to
Wellington Academy related to outdoor supervision.
Additional information is confidential per section 39.202 Florida Statues.

Department of Children and Families

Even with open DCF and Cape Coral police investigations, Nabors said the daycare barely gave her any answers.

“There was a lot of denial, and you know, a lot of no responsibility being taken,” said Nabors.

Although Nabors said Wellington Academy left her in the dark, the DCF citation helps ease her mind.

“It gives like a sense of validation, because somebody is acknowledging that this happened,” said Nabors.

WINK News reporter Maddie Heron took a trip to the daycare to see if she could get a response.

The director she spoke to at Wellington Academy said the daycare’s corporate office is now handling this incident.

On Friday, the Corporate Administrator from Wellington Academy Schools sent WINK News the following statement:

“We take the safety of the children very seriously and all actions are taken to achieve this goal. If any staff is not aligned with this goal, it can mean losing their job. And this has been done in the past as well as in the current case. The incident occurred on July 5th, when the director spoke to the teacher, the teacher claimed the child was at the end of the hallway. The teacher was verbally warned about always keeping head count. When the parent came in on Monday the July 15th, she was irate and screamed to the front office staff, in turn the director questioned the teacher again and that is when she told the director the child was right outside the door for less than a minute and she brought her in. The teacher was terminated, and it was then reported. The director reached out to the family and the mom was still irate screaming on the phone and was not willing to hear what had occurred. Proper protocol for keeping count of the children they have in the class, they are required to carry their clipboards with roll sheets and counts, they should also be counting as the children transition though out the day, so they have an accurate head count at all times. Safety of the children is our topmost priority. And we continue to stand by this and do everything to achieve this goal.”

The daycare’s statement confirmed how long the child was left outside — for ‘less than a minute’ and that a teacher was fired as a result of this incident.

Wellington Academy emphasized the safety of children under their care is the school’s top priority.