HANFORD, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – A family in Hanford is urging parents to avoid a daycare where a former employee was recently accused of harming a pair of three and four-year-old boys.
Richard Romo says he was running earlier than usual to pick up his sons from Little Feet Day Care and Preschool in Hanford on Wednesday, July 16.
“Which was the reason why I caught and seen what I’ve seen,” Romo said.
Romo says he walked into the daycare to find an employee with “her arms around my son’s face and neck, pushing him and forcing him to sit down.”
Romo says that, though he was furious, his first concern was ensuring the safety of the other kids and calling the police. He left the daycare with his kids, called the police from his parents’ house and met the police back at the daycare with his sons.
That’s when Romo says he learned the employee was not facing charges, leaving the family dumbfounded.
“These are children,” Grandmother Andria Romo said. “They’re helpless. This is a grown-up. There’s no reason that I can. That you can justify to me why she’s not arrested.”
In response, the Hanford Police Department provided a statement.
The Hanford Police Department takes all reports of child abuse extremely seriously. Detectives are still actively working this case and will conduct a professional and thorough investigation.
Hanford Police Department
Romo says the daycare’s director told the family that their children would no longer be allowed at Little Feet Day Care and Preschool.
“Later on that day, just an hour later, she texted us and tells us that it’ll also be our kids last day, due to incidents and how problematic our kids are,” Richard Romo said. “Apparently, we never heard this once, though.”
YourCentralValley.com reached out to Little Feet Daycare and Preschool. An employee there referred us to their attorney, who declined to comment on the allegations and Romo’s call to action, urging other parents not to take their children there.
“Take your kids out at this very moment. Take your kids out,” Richard Romo said. “This woman takes care of her grandchildren, her kids, whoever it is. If she’s doing [this] to mine, what makes you think she won’t do it with those kids?”
