Notes of Concern…..
Jackson Blair
“SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN”
On a typical day, June 5th, parents dropped off their small children at a Mexican government subsidized day care center in Hermosillo, Mexico, just as they had done every day, day after day.
This was undoubtedly part of their daily schedule.
Drop off the babies and go to work.
Return after work, pick up the babies and go home.
Again, a pattern repeated, without incident, day after day.
But this day, June 5th, would be different.
The families awoke in the morning and went through their usual ritual: get dressed, dress the baby, have some breakfast, drive to the day care center, and then on to work.
However, a few hours before the babies were to be picked up by their parents, a fire broke out in a building adjacent to the day care center.
The lethal smoke and the flames spread rapidly.
As of the time of my writing, 42 children between the ages of six months and five years of age died and 26 others are still in hospital.
This story is heart wrenching. It is every parent’s worst nightmare.
We all know accidents happen. We also know that some accidents could have been prevented.
Buried way down in the story I read about this is in an international news report stating that this day care center, called the ABC Day Care Center, took responsibility for the care of 170 babies and young toddlers.
In order to provide this care the ABC Day Care Center is reported to have employed six adults.
SIX ADULTS TO CARE FOR 170 CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF 6 YEARS!
For the sake of argument, lets assume that each of these six adults could actually carry four children out of the building as the smoke and fire consumed the center. They then could have saved 24 of the 170 children.
If the fire permitted them to return for a second load of kids, they could have saved 48!
One could argue that it was a miracle that well over 100 children were saved. One could also argue that this story suggests an enormous level of incompetence, irresponsibility and criminal negligence.
The fact that this day care was in some way “government sponsored” only angers me all the more.
There surely is no day care advocate, author of day care philosophy, noted authority on children this age, or any other reasonable person who ever suggested that 170 children of any age could be properly watched over by six adults, let alone large numbers of children who could not yet even crawl or walk.
I do not know how poor the village of Hermosillo might be, or how difficult it was for the parents to find work, or how honorable the government’s intention was in supporting this day care center.
What I do know is that this was a formula for failure, a tragedy waiting to happen, and an enormously irresponsible plan at the outset.
Perhaps this tragedy will encourage the government of Mexico to adopt basic standards for day care centers. If so, that is wonderful.
Perhaps this tragedy will encourage parents not to simply accept the easy solution with reference to their children but to demand minimum standards be in place before they entrust care of their children to others.
It is also possible that these parents had no other options and that this tragedy will provide better options for other parents. If so, that is a good thing.
A police officer who participated in the rescue of children, passing them from person to person from a small hole in the wall of the day care center, is reported to have cried out: “Where is God?”
I cannot imagine how horrific the situation must have been to those who were there trying to save those little lives.
That said, there are serious questions in this tragedy, one of them must surely be:
“Where was Man?”
