Doug Forbes Helps Media Investigate Triple-Drowning at San Jose Daycare
LOS ANGELES — Three infants drowned at Happy Happy Day Care in San Jose on October 2, including 16-month-old Lily Hanan and 18-month-old Payton Cobb who died and an unidentified 2-year-old boy who lived.
Shahin Gheblehshenas and her daughter Nina Fathizadeh owned and operated the licensed day care facility out of Gheblehshenas’ home. Gheblehshenas’ husband left the pool gate open after watering flowers. Neither party affixed the pool cover.
On October, Gheblehshenas ran an unlicensed day care out of Fathizadeh’s home and Fathizadeh ran the licensed operation at her mother’s home. She allowed the toddlers into the backyard without any supervision and later found all three floating unresponsive atop the pool.
The California Department of Social Services licenses home daycare operations with pools, despite the fact that drowning is the leading cause of death for children 1-4 and 88% of child drownings occur with an adult nearby.
“It takes a village to help a child and a village to harm one,” said Meow Meow Foundation President Doug Forbes. “We must also hold the California Department of Social Services and its Community Care Licensing Division accountable for licensing such operations without substantive requirements.”
CDSS Director Kim Johnson said to Forbes, “The Department is committed to ensuring the health and safety of children who are cared for, or live in, licensed settings. Any proposed amendments to regulations are required to include a public input process which we value.”
Forbes asked CDSS officials why a portion of their regulatory code allows home day care operators to place children in pools or open water at their facilities while another portion of the code requires that such water is inaccessible.
Public Affairs representative Theresa Mier said, “The requirement that licensees ensure the inaccessibility of pools is discussed in the context of pool covers and fencing and does not constitute a categorical prohibition on the use of pools while children are present.”
CDSS also requires home day care operators to have “current water safety training.” Forbes asked Mier about the water safety training curriculum or certification to which Mier responded that all such operators must simply watch a 6-minute video titled “Bodies of Water Requirements in Child Care.”
“I cannot believe how insufficient that is,” Forbes said. “While I am glad that I demanded a lot of answers from these officials, I am shocked by how feeble their answers were.”
Forbes said that CDSS should not be issuing licenses to home day care operators with pools or open bodies of water until the agency improves its own woefully inadequate licensing requirements.
He has notified California Governor Newsom and CDSS executives to acknowledge these lethal loopholes and immediately evaluate reversing them.
Forbes said he had the opportunity to speak at length with two of the aggrieved parents whose names he prefers to withhold at this time. “I do this work all over the nation, but it never ceases to amaze me how systemic failures continue to shatter families and communities for lifetimes.
CDSS does not even possess a list of home day care operations with pools or open water on their properties. Mier said, “This information is not readily available. However, the Department will process this request as a Public Records Act request and provide an initial response within ten days.
A family from Clayton, California, recently contacted Forbes about a neighboring home with a pool that is applying for a day care license to supervise 14 children ages three months through four years old. In light of the triple-drowning and meager CDSS regulations, multiple neighbors have discussed their options.
One of those neighbors, whose name is being withheld for reasons of privacy, said, “We are concerned about the childrens' safety and are wondering if you have any advice for us, as it seems there is very little regulation for home day cares at the city level.”
Forbes said, “I wish I could say that California has learned from its grave mistakes, but I have attempted multiple pieces of child safety legislation that fail because legislators and the government agencies in their charge would rather do what is convenient instead of what is right.”
Meow Meow Foundation plans to introduce legislation that prevents the licensing of home day care operations with pools or open water.