The Daycare That Allowed Children To Sustain Severe Sunburns Should Be Shut Down

We know how dangerous sunburns can be. One blistering sunburn in a person’s lifetime increases his or her chances of developing skin cancer by 50 percent. And yet a daycare in Oklahoma reportedly let two children play outside without shirts or sunscreen for so long they got third-degree burns from the sun.

(Related: Science Mom: It Puts The Sunscreen On Its Skin Or Else It Gets The Hose Again)

I did not even know it was possible to get a third-degree burn from the sun, but according to News On 6, Shaunna Broadway sent her 5- and 7-year-old sons to daycare Friday morning, and she knew they were heading out with the group to play in some water sprays. When she picked them up at 5 p.m., though, she noticed that both boys were severely sunburned and crying, and she says the daycare workers were actually laughing at them for crying over sunburns like babies.

”I got off work at 5 p.m. and went to pick them up, and they were clearly burned. [The employees] were actually making fun of my older son, because both boys got sunburns but he was being a ”˜baby’ and crying about it,” she told Buzzfeed.

The burns were so severe that Broadway took them to the hospital the next day, but the hospital said they could not really do anything to help until the burns blistered.

”But the boys kept screaming and crying all day. My oldest one’s chest started hurting and he said he was having trouble breathing,” she said. ”Apparently the swelling and pain on his back was so bad that he was having pressure on his chest.”

Sunday the boys wound up being flown to Shriner’s Hospital for Children in Galveston, Texas. Both boys had second-degree burns, and the oldest boy–a redhead–actually had third-degree burns. The boys’ aunt posted a photo to Facebook of one of the enormous blisters on the older boy’s back. It’s pretty graphic, so I’ll just leave it behind this link and you can click it if you want to.

The daycare reportedly told Broadway that they did not have any sunblock with them at the water park, so they just told the kids to leave their shirts on. Even if the kids took their shirts off, the kids are five and seven, which is why they are in daycare supposedly under adult supervision. The adults at daycare were supposed to be supervising and protecting them, not letting them get third-degree burns and then laughing at them.

Broadway called the police and is reportedly considering legal action against the daycare for child neglect. I hope she gets them shut down, because they clearly were not taking appropriate care of the children in their charge.

(Photo: iStockPhoto/Getty Images)