KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A woman filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Jackson County Court in the July 2022 death of her infant son at Happy Day Preschool in Kansas City, Missouri.
The woman's identity is not included in the lawsuit, which names her as Jane Doe, S.B.
The company T.C. Lewwick Company, Inc., doing business as Happy Days Preschool, and employee, director, and owner, Sherry Easter, are named in the lawsuit.
Court documents state, "while infant John Doe ME was under the care and supervision of the Defendants, John Doe ME was severely neglected, which caused him to suffer from severe respiratory distress, asphyxia, and other serious injuries, which caused or contributed to his untimely death on July 13, 2022. "
The preschool, located at 6175 Paseo Blvd., provided full-service daycare, according to the lawsuit.
The infant had been cared for at Happy Day Preschool for less than two months before his death.
The suit claims Easter was assigned to the classroom for the infant, "providing constant care and supervision, treatment, education, and well-being of John DOE ME."
On July 1, 2022, the Office of Childhood received an allegation that Easter would leave infants alone, without supervision.
An investigation by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education found the allegation was substantiated, the lawsuit states.
Easter took John Doe ME to a breakroom about 1 p.m. on the day of his death so he would not wake up children who were napping.
The lawsuit alleges Easter laid the infant on a couch and left the breakroom. No employee in the breakroom was qualified to provide care and supervision to the infant when Easter left the child.
About 2:15 p.m., a Happy Day Preschool employee went into the breakroom and saw the infant was unresponsive. He was also blue and was not breathing, the lawsuit states.
Easter tried CPR on the infant, and another employee called 911.
The infant was taken to a hospital, where he died.
The death certificate lists the cause of death as acute bronchopneumonia with an unsafe sleep environment as the significant condition contributing to the death, the lawsuit states.
—
