PHOENIX (CBS5) -
The head of a Valley daycare says a toddler who escaped from the center was later found roaming the streets.
Jean Newell is the pastor at Creighton United Methodist Church and the head of their daycare and pre-school center.
"I got a call from the director of the preschool saying there was an emergency," she said.
A 2-year-old boy wandered off from the center around 1:00 last Tuesday, Nov. 22.
"The teacher was not being as attentive as she needed to be, and consequently we had a child that was endangered," Newell said.
Newell told CBS 5 News that one 19-year-old caretaker was watching five children when the toddler got away. But Newell says the law allows them to have eight kids to every one teacher.
Newell said the boy escaped by getting out of the building from one of the center's doors, walking around the building, down an alley and through a hole in a fence. Newell said she then believed that the boy walked across another alley and to Pinchot Avenue right off 48th Street a little over a block away.
Newell said the school called 911, and about 15 minutes later police found the boy on that street.
One mom we spoke with who lives close by said she told police Tuesday that she didn't see anything, but police came to her door asking if she noticed the boy in the neighborhood.
"It's scary to think that could be your kid that gets lost or escapes you. It only takes one second," said Esther Gordon.
CBS 5 News did some digging and discovered this isn't the first time the center has had problems.
The Department of Health Services website lists 17 citations issued in May alone.
Among those citations was failure to ensure that the staff to children ratios was maintained.
But Newell said those problems were under old management and have since been addressed.
The center tells us a new staff is now in place, but just to be clear, the toddler incident happened under that staff's watch.
The center said the caretaker responsible for that toddler was terminated the next day, and they've started the process of notifying parents.
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