CHARLOTTE, N.C. — State officials suspended an east Charlotte day care center's license back in February, and nearly five months later, the owner is speaking to WCNC Charlotte about what happened.
Midwood Learning Academy, located at 2519 Central Ave., had its license suspended on Feb. 26, according to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Division of Child Development and Early Education.
The day care center's license was suspended "to protect the health, safety, and welfare of children," according to the order issued by the state. Midwood Learning Academy has been open since 2021, according to state records.
The order did not specify in detail what led to the closure but says it received information leading to an investigation on Friday, Feb. 23.
A Charlotte family, who wanted to remain anonymous, said they raised concerns after a photo surfaced, showing kids piling into a car without car seats. A father, who's daughter is in that picture, told WCNC Charlotte in February a friend called him about kids playing unsupervised at Cordelia Park in Plaza Midwood. But the kids weren't completely unsupervised. The dad said they were being watched by two people from a car. Eventually, the kids were called back, and that's when the dad's friend confronted the adults, and the car tried to speed away.
“My daughter is laying across the lap of other kids that don’t have seat belts, about to fall out," he said. "It’s just unfathomable.”
WCNC Charlotte spoke to one of the owners of the day care, Shirley Torrence, who wanted to explain her side of the story.
"You can see, the lady snatched the door open, trying to pull the child out the car.," Torrence told WCNC Charlotte. "This is when they allegedly took off, and you can see her reflection in the car when she snapped the teacher. Fight or flight took over then. We have a letter here that states that no drugs, no alcohol was found in the system of the employees, and we were exonerated."
Torrence also apologized to the parents back in February and again now.
“There was just absolutely no structure, and there were real systemic problems within the day care, that put these kids’ lives in jeopardy, which is crazy to say out loud," the dad said.
The department encourages anyone who needs to file a complaint against a day care to do so here on the NCDHHS website.
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