A child care center in Utah will be forced to cease operations following an incident in which a child's toes were severed by a lawnmower, reportedly causing the child to require emergency surgery.
The Department of Health and Human Services sent a letter to Chandara Childcare LLC of Cedar City in order to let them know that their license was being revoked on Nov. 21. The DHHS stated that the reasoning for this was because their child care center was "out of compliance" with multiple administrative rules, including one mandating the protection of children in their care, as reported by KTLA.
On Oct. 15, 14 children at the daycare were observing a staff member use an electric lawnmower outdoors. The children's ages spanned from 18 months to 5 years old.
"During this incident, a child was seriously injured, multiple toes were severed, and the child required emergency surgery," DHHS said in a letter obtained by KTLA, following an inspection on Oct. 18.
Another rule the daycare was cited for was not maintaining "active supervision" of the children, with the DHHS arguing that the staff member operating the lawnmower was not supervising the children sufficiently.
Furthermore, DHHS reportedly discovered that one caregiver would often be responsible for up to 13 children for extended periods of time, whereas state law mandates one caregiver per eight children.
The daycare has been ordered to shut down by Dec. 4, and must provide the DHHS with a list of all the children enrolled at the daycare and their parents within 10 days.
