Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/03/12/daycare-owner-sent-to-prison-f.html
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Skipping leg day is also a crime. Sometimes you can’t win.
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“Unlicensed?”
Not to put the onus for this on the parents, but a legal license to operate a business was kind of a ‘bare minimum’ requirement for any facility watching my kid when she was young enough to need daycare.
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Am I the only one who was a little relieve after reading " drugging tots" was followed up with “so she could tan and hit the gym”?
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Yeah. I hate to victim blame but shame on the parents that didn’t check on proper licencing.
Believe it or not there is a very good reason some professions require license.
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Yes I would…as long as she could show the proper licencing and first aid endorsements.
What exactly about her look is problematic for you?
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Honestly, not seeing any obvious warning signs here. I bet she’s even able to look quite charming when she’s not being arrested.
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Seems a clever bit of time management to me - which is why I knew I should never have children. 
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If it were her and an assistant, I could see her nipping out at lunch time to work out for 45 or something. The assistant stays behind and deals w anything and if she needs Ms January back she’s but a text msg away (assuming gym very close yada yada yada).
But leaving the infants alone? OMG no. And yeah, this is why licensing and such is a decent idea. “Uber for daycare” sounds like what this lady was offering. Honestly quite sad. But mostly scary.
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Melatonin is hardly GHB. Obviously it’s not nice to give kids anything without parental knowledge, and it’s definitely fucked to abandon them. But melatonin will barely make you sleepy, let alone knock you out the way “drugged” suggests.
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My niece died as the result of a babysitter giving her Benadryl to make her sleep. She was just an infant but the babysitter (an adult and former attorney) gave her an adult dose and she ended up suffocating in the blankets. To make things worse, she was an acquaintance of the judge and received a sentence of six months probation. If this hadn’t happened, my niece would have turned nineteen a few days ago. When I hear people joke about giving their kids Benadryl to mellow them out it makes me cringe.
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I don’t share your confidence that this woman was sticking to the recommended dosage. And better hope the kids weren’t on any other medications that could interfere with each other.
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I am so very sorry. That’s a pain that doesn’t go away.
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Re: licensed
Of course most people would love to use a nice, licensed day care. The reality is some times these unlicensed slightly sketchy places are the best they can afford. 
The Ghallegers on TV make it look easy, but it can be hard work.
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“Neatherlin insisted that parents not drop off or pick up their kids between 11am and 2pm, as it would screw with the day care’s nap-time schedule.”
I can’t think of a bigger red flag than that.
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It’s Portland. It’d be kind of weird if she didn’t have any ink or piercings.
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Depends what state you live in. I live in Alabama (as they say around here, pray for me), and child care providers operated by churches are currently NOT required to be licensed. I’m fairly sure that in many areas of the state, they are either 1) the only option available or 2) the only one many people can afford because they can charge lower fees because they are subsidized by the church and do not have to meet all those requirements (expenses) in training, facilities etc that a non-church provider does. Some are excellent. Some/many are not. After some recent tragedies involving deaths and injuries of children there has been a bit of an effort to close that loophole, but it hasn’t gone anywhere yet, unsurprisingly.
EDIT:
… and one day later I read [this] A glimmer of hope.
(http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2018/03/alabama_child_care_safety_act.html#incart_river_index).
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It’s actually the same in most states. Churches basically get a don’t-have-to-obey-the-law pass for a lot of things. Like taxes. And political speech. And daycares.
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Locally the licences daycares tend to have long waiting lists but I gather things have been getting better over the years. Also unlicensed does not mean no regulations. I knew someone who did this a few years back and there were limits on number of children that she could take.
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Preface: This is horrible, but please don’t scare-monger about melatonin.
Melatonin is a hormone the body produces naturally to regulate the sleep cycle, and it tends to stabilize sleep rather than induce it (based on personal experience).
Also, a former professor of mine, before deciding to take it himself, gave rats massive doses of the stuff with little-to-no ill effects. It’s not a scientific study by any means, but it definitely suggest to me that it’s safe.
Epilogue: Don’t drug kids, even with substances safe in massive doses.
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