The Arkansas Department of Human Services has placed on probation the license of a West Memphis child care center where a disabled 5-year-old boy died June 12 after workers left him in a hot van for eight hours.
The department also prohibited Ascent Acquisition Corp. -- the owner of the West Memphis center and 10 other facilities in the state -- from providing any transportation services after inspections revealed several violations in the way children are transported to and from the West Memphis facility.
Christopher Gardner died after police said he was left in an Ascent Children's Health Services of West Memphis van for eight hours as temperatures climbed to 141 degrees inside the vehicle.
The driver of the 15-passenger van picked up the boy at his home at 6:30 a.m. June 12 and delivered him to the center on West Tyler Avenue. Workers unloaded the children, but Christopher was left behind, strapped in a child car seat in the back of the vehicle, according to police.
Workers told police that they signed documentation that the boy was removed from the van and taken inside the facility. About 75-85 children attend the facility daily.
A driver returned to the van about 3 p.m. and drove the vehicle to the center's entrance to pick up children for their returns home but failed to notice Christopher, according to police.
West Memphis Police Capt. Joe Baker said that during that day the boy was able to free himself from the car seat and moved to another seat across the aisle. He also removed his shirt and one shoe. Authorities found his body sitting upright in a back seat.
Kendra Washington, 40, Felicia Ann Phillips, 42, Pamela Lavette Robinson, 43, and Wanda Taylor, 43, are charged with felony manslaughter in the youngster's death. The four were released from the Crittenden County jail Monday on $20,000 bonds. They are to be formally charged Aug. 3 in Crittenden County Circuit Court in Marion.
Ascent fired all four women June 12. The center closed after Christopher died and remained closed until Monday because of an outbreak of shigella, an infectious bacteria that causes stomach cramps, fever and diarrhea.
Ascent's probation will remain in effect until June 20, 2018, wrote David Griffin, assistant director of licensing and accreditation for the Child Care and Early Childhood Education Division, in a letter to the center Wednesday.
"Any violation of the corrective action agreement or any serious non-compliance with licensing requirements during the probationary provisional time frame could result in action to suspend or revoke the license," Griffin wrote to Ascent chief executive officer Dan Sullivan, a Republican state representative from Jonesboro, and West Memphis center director Mandrea Godsey.
The West Memphis center violated regulations that require facilities to maintain a roster of all passengers to ensure they are not left on vehicles, Griffin noted in his letter. He cited Godsey for failure to control the daily activities of the center and for failure to ensure the health and safety of children.
The department also has prohibited Ascent's corporation from transporting its patients as of June 30.
Ascent's centers in West Memphis, Jonesboro, Blytheville, Paragould and Trumann subcontract transportation services with Southeastrans, a Medicaid-funded nonemergency transportation service based in Atlanta. Southeastrans officials terminated its subcontract with Ascent effective June 30.
Ascent also has two facilities in Mountain Home and centers in Arkadelphia, Batesville, Benton and North Little Rock.
Sullivan said in a statement released Wednesday afternoon that his company will continue to work with state and regulatory agencies.
"We are going to transition transportation services for our clients to local Medicaid transport providers," Sullivan said in the statement. "We will work to make this transition as seamless as possible for our clients as we continue in our efforts to meet their needs and provide the quality services they require."
Sullivan did not return telephone messages left at his work and home Wednesday. He said last week in a released statement that the staff "did not follow company policies and procedures, and if they had, this tragedy would not have occurred."
A person answering the telephone at the West Memphis facility said Godsey was in a conference Wednesday afternoon and could not take calls.
Several inspection reports provided by the Department of Human Services show that this is not the first time Ascent Children's Health Services in West Memphis has been cited for violations.
A March 20 inspection of the facility revealed broken locks on a cabinet in a classroom, trampolines placed in a gross motor skills therapy room, and a bird's nest with eggs on the center's playground.
"[The birds] may attack children to protect their eggs," the inspector wrote in her review.
On Nov. 30, 2016, inspectors reportedly saw children who were unsupervised during naps and an alarm at the back of a van that was out of service. The alarms are set so drivers and other supervisors must walk from the front to the back of the van to deactivate it once the vehicle is stopped to ensure all passengers have been removed.
An Aug. 5, 2016, inspection noted that a bag of medication was found unlocked in a classroom where children had access to it, paint was peeling from walls and the playground was flooded.
A broken fence in the playground that had nails sticking out of it and cleaning chemicals found within reach of children were reported in a March 11, 2016, inspection.
Inspectors also noted several violations of student-to-teacher ratios inside classrooms.
Department of Human Services spokesman Brandi Hinkle said department workers will remain at the West Memphis facility to monitor its operations.
"We will be there until we feel it's no longer necessary," Hinkle said. "We want to ensure [employees] are vigilantly following rules.
"Those rules are in place for a reason," she said. "If you don't follow regulations, this could happen."
A Section on 06/22/2017