Bubbaworld

Deadly Day Care – Another DHS Failure is our report and commentary on the death of Joshua Minton in a Tulsa in-home day care, allegedly at the hands of Vicki Chiles, a woman already under investigation by DHS for child abuse.

If you have children, grandchildren or simply care about kids this is a scandal of which you will want to know a lot more, as what happened to Joshua Minton can happen to any child owing to the failures of Oklahoma’s child protection system.

Publication Date: 5/26/07
Last Update: 5/26/07

Thursday, May 17th 2007 started off as a typical-enough day for most of us. Before that fateful day was over many were left shocked, angered and fed-up with a child protection system which failed again miserably. And once again it failed with fatal results for an Oklahoma child; this lovely child, 2-year-old Joshua Minton, of Sperry, Oklahoma.

Joshua allegedly died at the hands of this woman, 42-year-old Vicki Leigh Chiles, who operated a day care center in her Tulsa, Oklahoma home and who has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Joshua Minton.

Chiles’ arrest report indicates that she told police the boy would not be quiet for nap time and that she used masking tape to bind his hands and cover his mouth to keep him quiet. Chiles then left the child unattended and when she returned a few minutes later she found Joshua lying on the floor unresponsive at which point she called 911 and began CPR on the child.

As Joshua Minton lay struggling for life on the floor of Vicki Chiles day care, workers from the Oklahoma Department of Human Services (DHS) arrived at her door at 2648 E. Third Street in Tulsa.  The DHS workers came to Chiles’ day care to either perform a surprise inspection or to shut it down. A spokesperson for DHS has indicated an emergency order to shutdown Chiles’ day care had been issued on the morning of May 17 and the workers were there to carry it out. A Tulsa Police spokesman indicated the DHS workers were there to conduct a surprise inspection.

In any case, following the discovery by DHS workers of Joshua not breathing and in cardiac arrest he was rushed first to Saint John’s Hospital, the closest medical facility, and then flown by helicopter to Saint Francis Hospital where he was determined to be brain dead. Joshua Minton died late on the night of May 17th.

Once again, a matter of minutes came into play in the life and death of a precious child named Joshua Minton. And once again those whose responsibility it was to protect him failed and failed miserably.

Were this the end of this tragic and horrifying story it would be terrible in and of itself. However it gets worse, a lot worse for Joshua Minton was not the first victim of child abuse in the day care of Vicki Chiles. Little Joshua was simply the last.

Chiles was already under investigation by the DHS owing to her allegedly admitted abuse of another child, an 8-year-old who she struck repeatedly with a fly swatter on April 10th 2007. Tulsa police say that Chiles admitted to the April 10th abuse incident in a confession to them on April 20th. Previously she had allegedly admitted the same to DHS.

On May 16th, the day prior to Joshua’s death, felony child abuse charges were filed against Vicki Chiles by the Tulsa County District Attorney’s Office and a warrant was issued for her arrest for the April 10th incident. Tragically the closure of Chiles’ day care and her arrest came too late to save Joshua Minton.

In the wake of the tragic death of Joshua Minton many discoveries regarding Vicki Chiles have come to light. For example the April 10th abuse incident is not the first occasion DHS has had cause to investigate Chiles.

Previously Chiles’ day care was investigated for various other complaints including a child abuse complaint resulting from an assistant care giver spanking a child in 2005, a care giver who had not undergone a background check working alone with children and two complaints in 2005 which were unsubstantiated alleging physical and sexual abuse.

Additionally various discrepancies were noted on both scheduled and surprise inspections, such as over authorized capacity, lack of smoke detectors in some rooms, and using space heaters. It has been reported that since Chiles was first licensed to operate her day care in 2003 that DHS has had cause to inspect her operation 29 times. A typical day care would have been inspected about a dozen times within the same time frame.

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