I Hear Ya

I drove down to the beautiful little village of Honeoye Falls on Monday morning to meet with a lawyer who graciously agreed to help me with the CPS case that resulted from an incident in our toddler daycare class last February. Thanks to my coworker's attorney, we were able to bring into evidence the video recording of that morning's events. "Inadequate supervision" was the charge. The video is all of one minute long, with a total of 8 seconds elapsing between the child's injury and me picking him up and walking off camera (to the sink and cold running water). 

At the exact moment of the injury I was seating our food allergy child at a separate table, a request from both daycare administration (with a doctor's note) and the parents. I did not fill the carafe with water, or pour it into the oatmeal, nor was I aware of the water's scalding temperature. The water had never before been hot enough to burn a child. I had no reason to suspect there was a present danger.

My coworker felt like her hearing went well and I think mine did as well. Apparently the judge is swamped with a backload of cases and it will take some time for the decisions to be handed down. I will eventually receive a letter in the mail informing me of his the verdict. Sadly, this incident, which will most likely be cleared (although we were surprised by the indication the first time around), left me in a state of hypervigilance resulting in another incident where I (apparently) overreacted to a crayon eating child and in my quest to secure the crayon, left an accidental scratch on the child's neck. This resulted in my termination and a second CPS charge of "maltreatment of a child." I never heard back from OCFS when I mailed in my letter of appeal.

Life has settled. Aside from a painful case of plantar fasciitis, I am enjoying my job at Dunkin. I have the pleasure of interacting with people on a daily basis, sometimes even children. I'm not making a ton of money, but the stress level has been greatly reduced. Besides, I get free coffee and donuts. What could be better than that?

Pictures from my bit of destressing after my appointment. LOL!