A young Chicago boy was found unresponsive at an unlicensed daycare in a suburb of the city. After being rushed to the hospital, the child was pronounced dead. His mother said afterward she never expected that morning would be the last time she kissed and hugged her son.
On Tuesday, July 19, Tiffany Pearson took her 5-year-old son Anthony Josiah to the Little Dreamers Daycare in Richton Park, as had for the previous three weeks, and left him in the care of D’Angela Edwards. A little before 11 a.m. her son was picked up by paramedics and taken to the Franciscan Health Olympia Fields facility, where he was pronounced dead.
Local law enforcement was called to the scene by the care provider, where “officers performed CPR on the scene until fire paramedics arrived,” according to Richton Park Police Officer Demitrous Cook.
Pearson took to Facebook to share how solemn the day was with her friends and family about the tragic news. The autistic son’s death was not to his epileptic condition but to alleged negligence on the babysitter’s behalf. Now, she is asking for the public to help her get justice.
She described the last time she saw Anthony alive, describing it as a “nightmare.”
“I never would have thought that on Tuesday, July 19th @ 6:20 AM would have been the last time I kissed and hugged my son goodbye,” she wrote, before sharing a few hours later she would have been struck with the tragic news.
“At 10:58 AM, I was living a mother’s nightmare,” Pearson said. “I received a phone call that I needed to rush to the hospital because there had been an incident with my son. Sure enough, my only child was abruptly stripped away from me. I’m still waiting for answers about what happened to my son.”
The mother said she has called Edwards “multiple times, even stopped by her house to get answers about what happened,” but to no avail.
“She has not personally reached out to me to give me any explanation or any sort of condolences,” the bereaved mother said. “I am only left with what the police said.”
Pearson says officers told her the boy had been “strapped … into a car seat in her house,” so Edwards “could take a 20 – 30min shower. [However] by the time she finished, he was unresponsive.”
The mother said she had noticed Anthony was “beginning to display abnormal behaviors.”
The day before his death, she asked the sitter to share what he was eating in her custody because he seemed “stressed and was not being his normal self.” Edwards’ answer to the mom did not “explain those abnormalities,” and so her resolve was to take him to their pediatrician. She scheduled his visit, according to the post, for Wednesday, July 20.
“D’Angela strongly encouraged me not to do so and stated I should give him more time to adjust to being at her daycare,” the mother wrote. “The day after I told her about it, I got the call a mother never wants to get and that was my son had passed away in her care. This does not add up…I’m distraught … I’m upset … and I don’t have my son.”
CBS 2 News reports that neither Edwards, Little Dreamers nor the home address where Anthony was last seen responsive is listed in the registrar of licensed care providers.
Licensing for child care in the State of Illinois is a mandate for the protection of kids.
According to the state’s website, “When a child care facility is licensed, it means that an Illinois Department of Children & Family Services (IDCFS) licensing representative has inspected the facility and it was found to meet the minimum licensing requirements set by IDCFS.”
“A child care facility that is license exempt is one that is not licensed by IDCFS but must still meet minimum requirements set by Illinois in order to operate as a child care provider,” it continues to explain. “The CCAP will only allow a license-exempt home to care for three children, including the provider’s own children, during a day unless all of the children are from the same household.”
The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services was contacted by the media about the incident and would not share details about the daycare. A representative did say the officer had been in contact with someone working at the business on a previous matter but was not at liberty to speak on it.
Anthony’s cause of death remains undetermined as of this writing.
