MILWAUKEE — It's a post that's now been shared hundreds of times.
Milwaukee mother Del Castillo shared on Facebook her two-year-old son with autism was left alone in his daycare and accessed a cabinet with cleaning supplies and poured a bleach solution on himself while unattended.
It happened on Nov. 11.
Castillo told TMJ4 over the phone Wednesday that she didn't know this happened to her son until she came to pick him up that day from Papa Bear Daycare in Milwaukee.
"As I got closer to [my son] I could smell bleach really strong so I asked the teacher what happened to his clothes," recalled Castillo. "I just grabbed the clothes, grabbed my son, and took him to the emergency room right away."
She says her son is now left with rashes where the bleach touched his skin.
Watch: Mother outraged after 2-year-old accesses bleach at daycare, owner responds
"I was devastated," said Castillo.
According to Wisconsin's Department of Children and Families, this case is the center's 21st violation in 2024 and eighth in November alone.
The other violations varied in severity. One included uneven staff-to-child ratios where two teachers were caring for 11 students.
The owner of Papa Bear Daycare, Daniel Balderas, was not there the day Castillo's son accessed cleaning supplies but admits the teacher assigned to watch him failed to do so.
"She should have been watching him but she wasn't," said Balderas. "[The children] were in a play area, a gated play area where there is a sink to wash hands. We have a child protector lock on the cabinet. It opens slightly, like an inch or two, and the child got his hand in there and pulled the spray bottle that was diluted bleach water. He got that onto his hands, his shoes, and also on his shirt which got on his skin."
Balderas says the teacher who failed to watch Castillo's son is no longer employed with the daycare, and they've updated their child safety locks and staff protocols.
"I'm the owner, I'm not a teacher, so I can take responsibility for the people I hire," Balderas said. "All I can do is terminate, and I did."
"Was the mother alerted of the situation after the situation happened?" Mackar asked.
"No, she was not. She should have been notified immediately, but she was not."
Balderas says that was the fault of staff members there that day.
"I told my staff really a lot of things can be resolved with common sense; Notifying the parents, notifying me, the director, of incidents as they occur," said Balderas.
The owner maintains this event was an isolated incident that has been resolved, but parents like Castillo tell me they are still hoping for more change so this never happens again.
"[Balderas] is not holding himself accountable, he is the owner and in charge of hiring new employees," said Castillo.
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