JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office and the Florida Department of Children and Families is investigating after a child was left in a day care van for about eight hours on Monday.
Investigators tell Action News Jax the child, 3-year-old Hadrian Hodge, is OK and back with his family. The driver of the van is cooperating with the investigation.
The child's grandmother, Santo Mack, said her grandson never got out of his seat in the van, which she said had its windows rolled up.
"People go to work and trust you to keep their kids where they while work and to keep them in the van; unacceptable," Mack said.
Mack said First Coast Young Stars learning center violated that trust Monday morning.
Mack said the blue day care van is the last place the 3-year old's mother saw him around 7:45 a.m. Monday on his way to school.
Around 3 p.m., Hadrian's mom went to check up on her son and he wasn't there.
"She asked the director where was he and they replied that he didn't come to school," Mack said.
The child's mom eventually found her son in the parked van alone with temperatures in the 80s.
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"He was still seatbelted and sweaty and had urine on him and I think he threw up," Mack said.
DCF said the day care has been on probation since July for supervision and transportation problems but would not explain further. That's why the department does monthly inspections now and says it found minor problems for paperwork in September.
DCF is now closely looking into how Mack's grandson was left inside the center's van for hours.
"I'm just so thankful that he's OK but on a hotter day it could have been worse," Mack said.
The child's family tells me they do not plan to sue, however will not send any of their kids back to the day care center. We tried to speak with the day care center but they said they were not saying anything Monday night and there is no word on if the driver has been fired
We went through our records and found out this is the third time a young child was left in a local day care van in as many months.
On July 14, a little girl was found in the back of a Chatman's Christian Academy van. The child was OK and she told us she had fallen asleep and that's why she was left in there. That day care center fired the driver.
In August, a 3-year-old was allegedly left in the back of an All About God's Children day care van. The child was not seriously hurt.
In that situation, the driver's neighbors called police after seeing the child in the van outside the driver's home.
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