When I first stated at this childcare facility, I was amazed. There were only about 10 children enrolled at the time, but they were all incredibly well-behaved, structured, & had great manners. They respected the facility director (Crystal Diaz) & she was wonderful with them. The parents loved & trusted her as well. One of the most impressive aspects of the facility was the overall cleanliness standard that she made sure to maintain.
I worked at this here for barely a month before an altercation with the facility director left me questioning the safety of the children in her care. After I started (originally part-time), I began noticing a few minor red flags here & there, but nothing worth mentioning. For example, the director showed visible favoritism towards the more well-behaved children & had significant less patience & compassion for the “troublemakers”. I had one child (4 year old boy) directly ask me, “Why doesn’t Miss Tina like me?”. Another minor red flag I saw early on were the frequent grammar/spelling errors in the newsletters sent home to parents. I offered to proofread before she printed them & was met with hostility.
There were very few scenarios where I was genuinely able to voice my concerns with her, but none of those instances included my concerns with her specifically. Each time I had questions or concerns, I had to gauge her mood before truly speaking to her or I was met with hostility & annoyance. After a couple weeks, I was opening & closing the facility five days a week, creating lesson plans, scheduling & leading all the activities, serving all meals & snacks, etc. On the day I was supposed to have my one month employee review, her only other employee (who was heavily pregnant) had called in, & it immediately put her in a bad mood. I had to basically avoid her all morning due to the hostility & sour attitude she had every time we spoke. By nap time, I had flat out asked her if we could have a conversation because I was uncomfortable with the fact that I couldn’t ask her basic questions. She quickly became defensive & began raising her voice in front of all the napping children. She stood up in front of me while I was still sitting calmly & displayed unacceptable behavior for a facility director in front of a room full of children. After seeing the way she was behaving, I said that this environment no longer matched my values & morals & that I would not be back after my shift that day. At this point she began screaming in my face to “get out of her facility”, I stopped engaging with her & began walking towards the exit. She was behind me yelling the entire time & slammed her hand on the door right next to my head to open it for me. I still did not engage. She yelled, “have a BLESSED day!” & slammed the door so hard I heard the windows shake in the frames. She had at least 5 napping children in her care who witnessed that entire incident. It broke my heart leaving that day, but I genuinely worried for my safety at that point. This must not have been the first incident that was similar in nature, because as I was walking out to my car, she opened the door again & began screaming that she would sue me for defamation.