Centennial Park in Tustin, CA

Received Friday, March 28, 2008
Physical description of caregiver: A woman in her mid to late 30’s, with blonde curly/frizzy hair, brown V-neck shirt, jeans, and brown sneakers, with black sunglasses. Her name was Stella.

Physical description of involved child/children: I am not even positive how many children she was actually watching. I know there were 6 children at least. Two approx. 3 year old boys, one was Asian, dark bowl cut hair with a Blue jersey on, the other was white with blonde hair and blue eyes. One toddler girl approx. 2 with a skirt and a yellow shirt on with light brown/dark blonde curly hair. One older boy, around 7 or 8 with a black, white and red shirt. One girl about 4 or 5, very tiny with long brown hair and a pink outfit on. One girl about 6 or 7, brown hair, Caucasian.

Address or venue of observed incident: Centennial Park in Tustin, CA

Date and time of incident: Friday, March 28th at 11:15am-12:20pm

Detailed description of what you witnessed: We arrived at the park at 11:15am today, (3/28) and we saw about 10 children there already, which is pretty crowded for this section of the park. I noticed two “caregiver” sitting on the bench talking with each other. I took the girls over to the swings and pushed them for about 15 minutes. During this time a toddler girl walks up with another girl about 4 or 5, but looked about 3 from her size. She helped the toddler onto the “big kid” swing and began pushing her. The toddler liked this until she fell off, and started crying. Miss Stella looked over and finally got up and walked over with an annoyed look on her face. The girl wasn’t seriously injured but she didn’t know that because she wasn’t even watching when it happened. She then took the toddler and strapped her into a stroller and gave her a snack. The older girl look upset but went to play in the sandbox.

Soon after the girls and I went to play on the slides. Under the slide we noticed a little Asian boy, approx. 3, playing and then he started throwing wood chips at the girls. I quickly went over and told him we do not throw wood chips and asked him where his mother was. He told me she was at work and he was here with his day care and pointed to Miss Stella, who was back on her bench talking away. I told him if he threw wood chips again I would have to go talk with Miss Stella. But, the girls were mad at the boy and wanted to go play in the sandbox.

At the sandbox we noticed an older lady, about 60-65 years old, with wavy gray hair, wearing a sweat suit. I assumed she also worked for the day care and began talking with her while the girls played in the sand with the girl from the swing set, and about 4 other children. The lady told me she was here with her granddaughter and these children just came up and started playing with them and their sand toys. One of the girls, about 6 or 7, with brown hair told Miss Stella she needed to use the bathroom. Miss Stella reluctantly got up and started to take her to the opposite end of the park, about 50 yards away, to use the bathrooms. She leaves the children there with her bench mate, who was about 50-60 years old, with short red hair, gray sweats, and short dark brown Uggs. I assumed this was her helper, but when one of the boys asked for Miss Stella the woman said she had left and the kid started sobbing saying I can’t believe she left us here. When Miss Stella returned she thanked her friend for helping out. It was then I realized this lady was there watching her grandson and Miss Stella had just left all the children with her while she took the one to use the bathroom! After she started talking to her friend again she looked up and did a quick head count, couldn’t find one, and then looked down the walkway about 20 yards and noticed the 4 or 5 year old down there, she yelled for her to come back, but didn’t watch even to make sure she did.

Description of vehicle, bag, stroller that may aid in identifying involved caregiver: I only know of one cream color double stroller that she put the toddler in. I also believe she had a black bag/backpack with her.