Parents of boy left in van haven’t seen report

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Friday, May 7, 2004 | 11:14 a.m.

The parents of a 3-year-old boy left asleep in a Head Start van still have not received an investigative report detailing what happened, more than two weeks after the incident.

"I mean honestly, I don't know what they think of us," said Hector Valencia, father of Christian Marin, who was left in the van April 21 for an unknown period of time after a field trip to the dentist.

"Are we just bystanders in all of this? They're just giving us the runaround," he said.

But state Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas, and spokesman for the Economic Opportunity Board, the nonprofit agency that oversees the 18 Head Start centers in the Las Vegas Valley, said, "They don't get a copy of the investigative report -- that's not Head Start policy."

Valencia said he was promised the report in an April 26 meeting that he and Garcia had with Florence Liu, director of the Herb Kaufman Head Start center. The parents at that time had not been told by the center that their son had been left in the van five days earlier and driven to an EOB-owned lot about 20 minutes away from the center, which is near Nellis Boulevard and Boulder Highway.

The incident is being investigated by Metro Police to determine if child neglect or endangerment charges should be filed, Lt. Jeff Carlson said.

In the meantime, Valencia and Garcia have not taken Christian to the center since last week, and are looking for another place to enroll him, Valencia said. But given his job as a bus person and hers as a waitress, "there isn't much to choose from" in his area, he said.

Valencia said Thursday the center where his son is enrolled gave the boy's grandmother -- who has two young sons also attending the center -- a two-paragraph summary of the incident on April 30, or nine days after it occurred, but he has yet to receive a detailed, written account.

The summary said, "All the children got off the bus except Christian. He had fallen asleep. The nurse who was driving the van was notified. ... The child was returned back to the center (ASAP)."

No mention is made of the monitor whose job it was to count the seven children who were on the van that day, or of her allegedly being fired after the incident. No mention is made of the nurse allegedly being suspended for three days. Neal told the Sun that those personnel actions were taken as a result of the incident.

Liu said in the April 26 meeting that she would give the parents a written report detailing what happened to their son pending her supervisor's approval, Valencia said.

The next day Liu told him he would have to ask for the report from Diana Goff, the EOB employee who directs Head Start, a $12 million-plus federally-funded program for low-income families.

Valencia called Goff for at least three days beginning April 28, leaving messages each time, he said.

Outside an EOB board meeting last week, Goff said she had been trying to get through to Valencia and Garcia, but couldn't reach them by phone.

Neal said Goff had been suspended for three days due to the incident.

But Valencia, who works a night shift job at a Strip casino, said there is always someone home at his house before 2 p.m., and that the Herb Kaufman center had no problem reaching Garcia by phone Wednesday to ask if they were going to bring Christian back to school, because if not, his slot would be filled by another child.

"You leave my kid on a bus and don't know where he is and then you go, OK, we'll give his spot to someone else," Valencia said.

"It seems they're getting a lot of money from the government to be running a program like they don't care."