Commercial Appeal, The (Memphis, TN)
CRYING TODDLER RESCUED FROM HOT DAY CARE VAN CHURCH DRIVER SAYS THEY FAILED TO CHECK
Date:
August 23, 2001 Section: News Page: A1
Illustration: photo (6) Source:
Tom Bailey Jr. and John Gaskill
bailey@gomemphis.com
gaskill@desotoappeal.com Memo: Also ran, DS1 Edition: Final
A forgotten 16-month-old girl spent about an hour alone in a hot Southaven church day care bus Wednesday when the vehicle was taken to a Whitehaven repair shop.
A customer and employees of MHC Sterling/Ford at 673 E. Brooks discovered Makayla Kinnion at 8:45 a.m. inside the Phoenix Chapel AME Church and Child Development Center bus.
"I pulled up beside the bus, and I heard the baby crying when I got out of my van," said customer Boonie Cranford, 61.
He saw Makayla standing on the steps behind the passenger door of the 25-seat bus. "She was real hot and crying. So I ran inside to see who had the bus there," Cranford said.
Employees told him the bus had been dropped off about an hour earlier.
Sales manager Chris Favi ran outside and got to Makayla through the driver's door.
"Bless her heart. She was so hot . . . she fell down on the bottom step," he said.
The temperature rose from 80 at 8 a.m. to 84 degrees at 9, the National Weather Service said.
Police said the child was in the parked bus from 7:30 to 8:45 a.m.
Phoenix Chapel pastor Eric Boone, 43, said the bus was still at the center at 7:30, running and air-conditioned, and didn't leave for Memphis until about 7:45.
"If the child had been on that bus for more than an hour in this kind of heat, heatstroke would have set in," Boone said.
By 9:15, the barefoot toddler was smiling, playful and licking a sucker given her by truck center employee Shontell Gales.
Still, the deaths of two toddlers left in day care vans in Memphis in 1999 weighed heavily on police, who responded in force.
"We're handling it so seriously because we've had so many children to have died," Lt. Delois Hamilton said.
Authorities even had an ambulance take Makayla to Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center for a more complete examination.
Her mother, Tamanyika Allen, visibly upset when she arrived at the truck center, rode in the ambulance with Makayla.
Phoenix Chapel AME Church, 7340 Greenbrook Parkway, has operated its child care center at 6011 Elmore in Southaven for six years, Boonesaid.
He made no excuses.
"We made a major mistake," Boone said. "We're happy the child is OK."
The day care center has 135 children enrolled. It dispatches two buses to pick many of them up.
Church member Dorothy Phillips drove the bus that picked up Makayla, and Kattie Holloway was bus monitor.
Phillips said that in the rush to get the bus to the shop, she and Holloway thought the other had done a walk-through check after dropping the children off at the center.
"I feel awful," said Phillips, 52. "It was a rush, but that's no excuse. I'm sorry, and I thank God the baby is OK."
Another driver drove the bus to the truck center to repair an engine belt, Boone said.
Workers at the day care center realized the child was missing before they were notified she had been found, Boone said.
"This was a wakeup call," he said. "The system that we have works every day. It just didn't work today. This will not happen here again."
Festus Simkins, director of the Division of Licensure and Regulations for the Mississippi State Department of Health, said his office will investigate the incident.
Phillips said nothing like this had ever happened to her before. "I know the Lord will forgive me," she said. "Her parents will forgive me. Now I have to forgive myself."
Memphis police spokesman LaTanya Able said no charges were filed Wednesday, and the incident is under investigation.
- Tom Bailey Jr.: (901) 529-2388
- John Gaskill: (901) 333-2017
Caption: Photographs by Jim Weber
(Color) MHC Sterling/Ford employee Shontell Gales helps little Makayla Kinnion cool off after the tot was left inside a day care van, which had been driven by church member Dorothy Phillips.
(Color) Tamanyika Allen was upset about daughter Makayla Kinnion being left inside the Phoenix Chapel AME Church and Child Development Center bus.
CAPTION: By Matthew Craig
(Color) Dorothy Phillips was the driver of the bus for Phoenix Chapel Child Enrichment Center where 16-month-old Makayla Kinnion was found after the vehicle was taken to Southland Ford for repairs. (DS1)
Rev. Eric Boone pastor of Phoenix Chapel AME Church, answers questions from media after a 16-month-old child was left on a bus operated by Phoenix Chapel Enrichment Center, a day care operated by the church. (DS2)
CAPTION: (Color) Dorothy Phillips
CAPTION: (Color) Eric Boone (DS1)
Keywords: CHILD CARE TRANSPORTATION WEATHER Document
Number: 0108240054
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