Inset: Conrad Ashcraft (Coplin Funeral Home). Background: Poppy’s Playhouse in Missouri, where Conrad allegedly died after being forced to sleep (Google Maps).
A Missouri mother is suing a local day care owned by a member of the city council over the death of her 3-year-old son, alleging that an adult employee at the establishment suffocated the boy to death with their legs or feet “in an effort to force him to sleep.”
The wrongful death lawsuit filed against Poppy’s Playhouse by Tara Williams on behalf of her son, Conrad Ashcraft, further claims that the day care was aware of and “approved of the technique” the employee performed that allegedly caused Conrad’s death. The employee accused of performing the allegedly fatal technique is not named in the complaint.
According to a copy of the complaint, filed Monday in St. Francois County, the incident took place on Friday, May 16, at the establishment located in the 100 block of Mitchell Street in Park Hills, which is about 65 miles south of St. Louis.
Over the course of the day, Williams alleges, her son suffered “a fatal injury” that was “the direct and proximate result of negligence” on behalf of the defendant.
From the filing:
(1) Defendant, through the use of lower extremities, applied weight and pressure to [the victim’s] chest and/or abdomen, while he was laying down, in order to subdue [the victim] in an effort to force him to sleep; (2) Defendant failed to properly train and supervise its employees to insure safe interaction between staff and children at all times during the day; and, (3) Defendant knew and approved of the technique of using human extremities and/or other devices to apply weight and pressure to a child’s body in an effort to subdue a child into sleep when Defendant knew or could have known that the application of such weight and pressure to a child would cause suffocation and fatal injury.
The filing goes on to state that the day care was “negligent to such a degree” that none of the employees working that day realized that Conrad was being suffocated, nor did they realize the boy had died.
“[O]n information and belief, [Conrad] was killed and remained laying on the floor of Defendant’s facility for hours without any effort to determine his wellbeing,” the filing states.
Conrad’s family provided some additional details in an interview with St. Louis NBC affiliate KSDK.
Lacey Hardie, Conrad’s aunt, told the station that her nephew was nonverbal with autism, and said it was a “nightmare” to think that the toddler was in pain but unable to vocalize his need for help.
Speaking to the amount of time Conrad’s well-being was allegedly ignored, Hardie said that nap time for kids at the day care was 12:30 p.m., but when his mother arrived at about 4:15 p.m. “and found him deceased,” he was still on the floor where the day care employee had allegedly forced Conrad to sleep.
According to KSDK, the facility is owned by Park Hills Ward 2 Councilwoman Spring Gray, who resigned on Tuesday. No criminal charges had been filed in connection to Conrad’s death as of Thursday afternoon and the day care has yet to publicly comment on the incident.
