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State officials in Georgia are currently conducting a formal investigation of a shockingly vicious brawl that took place last year in an Atlanta daycare center. Footage from the fight was first aired by WSB-TV, revealing two facility workers and one parent swinging their fists at each other and wreaking havoc in the baby room of the daycare.
David Gray, the parent allegedly seen in the shocking video, claims that the two daycare worker attacked him while he was holding his one-year-old son. Police contest that, in fact, Gray started the fight after several staff members of the McGarity School or Prep informed him that his son would be suspended from the center.
Oh, and did we mention that Gray also alleged that the daycare workers wouldn’t let him leave with his son? Considering that the inflammatory issue was the suspension of his older child, that seems odd. (People don’t usually insist on retaining students that they’ve suspended.)
After watching the video, it’s little difficult to tell the difference between the adults and the children. (All the “he said, she said” rhetoric surrounding this investigation makes it even harder.) But, what we can see is that one of the daycare workers is clearly trying to break up the fight, while another rushes to move a toddler out of the line of fire.
According to the Chief Communications Officer of the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL), Reg Griffin, the incident, was never reported to the agency by the parent, provider, or even local authorities. From an observer’s perspective, this seems a little suspect. After all, charges brought against feisty parent David Gray were recently dismissed, suggesting that there was at least a little publicity surrounding the events.
Perhaps the real question is why this shocking (and repulsive) video wasn’t investigated by Georgia state officials sooner. And, what’s more, why were the charges brought against alleged instigator David Gray dropped so recently? (Charges were dismissed not long before the video surfaced.)
While we can certainly understand that the public display of this video would be detrimental to the McGarity School of Prep, one would think that, for the sake of the children and the long-term success of the daycare, someone would have reported this incident to a higher authority. Had someone reported this to DECAL a year ago, chances are it wouldn’t be surrounded by a media firestorm.
So, what is the lesson to be learned here? Redemption may not always be found in honesty, but it’s certainly absent in deceit.
Contact Atlanta workers’ compensation attorney Michael Moebes at (404) 354-5432 for legal questions or concerns.
