SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (WXYZ) — It’s every parent’s worst nightmare: a 2-year-old boy got out of his day care center and walked straight into oncoming traffic.
Thankfully, the boy is safe, but his mother is asking how something like this happened.
Daija Talley was driving last week Wednesday just after 3 p.m. when she got a call from Dorothy's Montessori Center where her toddler Kayson Cureton attended and she could not believe what the staff were telling her.
They notified her three hours after the incident occurred that her child had gotten out.
“I instantly stopped. I said, ‘Excuse me?’ And I’m on the freeway, so now I’m just frantic,” Talley said. “And I said, ‘So, my child is missing?’ She said, ‘Well we found him.’”
Kayson had walked out of the center in Southfield on Greenfield Road near San Quentin Avenue, north of 11 Mile Road. He walked onto Greenfield during the busy lunch hour barefoot.
A driver saw the boy, stopped her car and went to him. Seeing the center nearby, the stranger went to check if Kayson came from there.
“She walked in, teacher was just sitting there. She said, ‘Are you missing a kid?’ And they were like ‘No,’ so she brought Kayson in and said, ‘So this isn’t your student?’ And they said ‘ohhh,’” Talley said.
The Southfield Police Department says there currently is no surveillance video of the incident and they are investigating.
We got in touch with the center’s owner, Karufus Lymon, over the phone and he confirmed that a staff member was supposed to be watching the child but had turned her back when he walked out and has since been fired.
However, Talley says there were other staff members in the building and the doors should have been locked.
“Every time I pass that road, I shed a tear because I just sit there and look like my son was in this street — literally, he’s in this street by himself,” she said. “He’s a 2-year-old!”
Kayson had abrasions on his feet and a splinter from the wooden bridge. But he is safe.
Meanwhile, Talley has since taken him out of the center and despite having a full-time job at General Motors, she just can’t find it in her to put him in another center.
“I put my trust in them. I’ve lost all trust with everyone right now,” Talley said.
