COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A judge has ordered Bright Achievers Pre-K in Austell be closed for 21 days. The day care is at the center of an alleged cover up by the owner after a 2-year-old was left in a day car van for hours.
Police have charged six people in the alleged cover-up for lying to a Department of Family and Child Services investigator, making up a field trip story and taking the center's video drives. The state's advocate called the alleged cover up disgusting.
Dr. Melinda Hamilton, the owner and supervisor of Bright Achievers Pre-K Center, located on Jefferson Street in Austell, is accused of telling the 2-year-old’s mother that the child had only been left in the van for 15 minutes, according to a Cobb County warrant.
The driver reported the child's clothes were soaked, her diaper wet, and that she was covered in sweat, according to a Cobb County warrant.
The 2-year-old's mother Quantina Russell says when she pressed for answers, the day care wasn't straight with her.
"They told me they had taken my child on a playground on a field trip and she was only left in the van for 15 minutes, and that wasn't true,” Russell told Channel 2’s Ross Cavitt. “Another teacher called me and told me not to believe it."
An arrest warrant claims Hamilton tried to get workers to erase video from cameras pointing at the daycare vans, write a false report on the incident, and tell parents the 2-year-old was only unaccounted for 15 minutes.
Investigators said they believe the child was actually in the van for closer to 6 hours, just feet away from a sign promoting a state program to discourage leaving kids in hot vehicles.
WSBTV
