Daycare Refused to Put Sunscreen on Black Children and Made Them Sit in the Sun
An outraged mom gave the daycare a bad review on Yelp, then took her story to Reddit.
The daycare made Black children sit in the sun, while white children sat in the shade. Wow.
Getty
Thankfully for working moms, there are many wonderful child care providers across the globe. Sadly, there are also a few daycares that should be shut down—immediately.
Case in point: A daycare provider who refused to put sunscreen on the Black children and made them sit in the sun, while the white kids sat in the shade.
A mom took to Reddit with the outrageous tale. Her 8-year-old daughter, who goes to daycare for after-school camp, said the workers refused to use sunscreen on her because “Black people do not need sunscreen.”
Incredibly, it gets worse.
“Before COVID-19 they went on a field trip and they made all the black kids sit in the sun and made the white kids sit in the shade because it would damage their skin or some bs,” the mom writes. “I talked to the ladies at the daycare and they said that it was justified but said if we brought in a doctor's note they would give her sunscreen. I made my daughter take it to school and let her share it with other kids, but then the teacher took it saying she was not allowed to do that without permission. The other day she came home with a bad sunburn and her skin was peeling and I had enough and wrote [on Yelp] that they were racist and segregating kids and that she could get skin cancer because they are forcing her in the sun without sunscreen.”
In response, the mom shared articles with the woman in charge of the daycare about how Black people can get skin cancer and should wear sunscreen, but the owner still wouldn’t relent and actually had the audacity to ask the mom to take down her Yelp review. Unfortunately, the mom didn’t provide any details on the center beyond that it is located “in the deep south."
Now, the mom wants to know if she’s in the wrong for blasting the daycare online. She posed her question in Reddit’s r/AmITheAsshole forum. “My friend said I am being a ‘karen’ for complaining publicly and that black people have melanin so that gives them lots of protection that other kids don't have,” she explained.
It’s safe to say Reddit users had her back and definitely declared she is not the asshole in this deeply troubling scenario. In fact, they urged her to make a complaint to the state licensing board.
“I am a daycare teacher. If you really want to affect them and hopefully see change you need to report them to the state,” one Redditor said. “Then it becomes public record forever and an inspector is more likely to catch other places they’re failing and also force them to change their racist ways or face being shut down. This makes me sooo mad.”
Others encouraged the mom to reach out to local reporters.
“This is grotesquely racist and I completely support the idea of taking this to the news. This place needs an exposé. They're harming kids. It's borderline abusive,” another commented. “Imagine the outrage if they were sitting white kids in the sun without sun protection. It would likely be seen as abuse by the parents.”
The mom said she plans to remove her daughter from the daycare center, but she’s looking for somewhere close by, since they live in a rural area. (This is a perfect example of how damaging it can be when parents live in daycare deserts, and why we need more funding for child care in this country.)
The mom hasn’t posted any more updates, so time will tell if we see this daycare on the local news. In the meantime, we hope this mama is able to find another caregiver who, unlike this one, listens to parents, believes in science and protects her charges.
