[nv] Daycare Employer Doing Nothing About A Violent Child That Is Putting Both Other Children And Staff In Danger

Not my story, but a friend of mine who’s looking for advice on what to do as she’s worried about her job. She’s been employed at this daycare center (not accredited-but they are seeking accreditation) for about 5 months, and everything was good, until about a month ago when new student was moved from another classroom in the same daycare into her classroom. In the previous class, the child was exhibiting violent and aggressive behavior and was switched to her classroom for punching a pregnant teacher and harming other children. The child was in that class for just over a month. In the new classroom, the child’s behavior remains basically the same, if not worse. The child has severe anger issues as well as OCD. No teacher at the daycare center is equipped or has the training/knowledge on how to deal with behaviors like the one this child is showing. My friend has done everything in her power to try and help the child and keep other children out of harms way, but the administration such as the director have done next to nothing to help and prevent the issues from reoccurring.

Some things the child has done include: kicks other children during nap time, punch children in the back because they aren’t expecting it, scratching, spitting and slapping children in the face, throw heavy objects (chairs, wooden blocks) at other children, towel whip children during nap time. Things like these are a daily occurrence. The child also does these things to teachers and administrators.

My friend has contacted the director multiple times, yet nothing seems to be done. She fears for her job, as a previous teacher was fired for interfering with a different student that had similar behavior. My friend had asked to move classrooms or even to step down from her current position, move the student out of the class, asked for additional help from week 1 and is only now getting that addition help due to parents complaining that their kids are in danger from this child. Today the child was doing what they normally do and terrorized other children, and both my friend and her coteacher happened to not be paying attention during an altercation with another student, resulting in the main student at hand chasing the other student with scissors while saying “I’m gonna cut you.” After the child got in trouble, the child was removed from the class to calm them down, and was telling the teacher who escorted them outside that was with them “I’m gonna kill you, and I’m gonna kill everyone in there.” Because my friend and her coteacher were not paying attention, and my friend received a verbal write up for this from the director, her coteacher did not (we think) because she is a minor and that she did not receive one because the daycare may be at fault for endangering a minor, but we don’t know the last part forsure.

So my question is-who can she contact about getting a safer work environment? I said maybe the labor board/commissioner because Nevada requires a safe work environment. Her coworker suggested licensing because they are unaccredited. She’s just looking for help because she doesn’t want to lose her job over this, and despite doing everything she could to help the student, nothing is being done.

I’ll try to answer as many questions as I can to the best of my knowledge or relay the questions back to my friend for more accurate answers