Two teachers have been fired after they left a 4-year-old boy alone inside an Orange County day care for several hours Friday night after his mother overslept and workers went home for the night, deputies said.
Investigators with the Orange County Sheriff's Office confirmed early Saturday morning that they are investigating a case where the boy was left unattended inside Kids R Kids day care center located at 415 Woodbury Road, in Waterford Lakes.
According to the overnight watch commander, the day care sponsored a parents' night out Friday where parents could drop off their children for the evening.
Deputies said one of the mothers came home from the event and decided to take a nap before going to pick up her son around the designated 10 p.m. pickup time.
The woman overslept, though. When she woke up, she rushed to the day care, but the facility was locked, deputies said.
The woman called the Sheriff's Office, and deputies were able to get in touch with an employee through the alarm company. The employee didn't have a key, though, and so Orange County Fire Rescue was called in and was able to gain access to the building.
The day care employee was able to get in contact with the owner, who then provided investigators with a list of employees who worked Friday night.
The child was located around 1:30 a.m., deputies said. The initial call to the Sheriff's Office was around 10:30 p.m.
Jose and Rosa Diaz, owners of Kids R Kids Waterford, said in a statement Saturday morning that the teachers who were at fault have been terminated.
The investigation into the incident is ongoing, deputies said.
Jose and Rosa Diaz released the following statement around 11:45 a.m. Saturday:
"This was a miscommunication between two staff members during the clearing and closing process of the center. Thankfully the child was found safe and asleep, and was reunited with his mother. In light of this mishap, the teachers at fault have seen been terminated.
Here at Kids R Kids we strive to make safety our top priority and we have a zero tolerance policy for occurrences such as this one. Please know that we are taking every precaution to make sure that this never happens again. Our entire staff will be undergoing additional safety re-training in regards to proper procedures for clearing and closing our center as early as Monday evening. Parent’s Night Out will be suspended until this training is completed."