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west




west

Dear Neighbor,

Before we get to official business, I want to pass along some family news pictured above: Our daughter, Sloane, was born Jan. 23, at 8 pounds, 12 ounces. The lack of sleep is challenging, but it has been absolutely wonderful. Sloane is healthy and adorable, and her sister, Sybil, loves her… maybe too much.

At the Capitol, I am excited about getting to work as Chair of the Children and Families Finance and Policy Committee now that the House is fully in order. I’m getting a lot of hands-on experience with children and families these days.

On a more serious note, a KSTP _report [ [link removed] ]_ details verbal abuse and aggressive handling of children, with one former employee turned whistleblower describing another worker’s behavior as “unhinged” and “out of control.”

That whistleblower reportedly filed her concerns with the daycare director five times – with no results. The story only came to light after that same whistleblower turned to social media, posting videos of mistreatment she witnessed. Thank God that employee was willing to record what was happening. One _report [ [link removed] ]_ said the video “depicted a female coworker screaming and swea[r]ing at preschool-age children, before aggressively picking them and up and roughly placing them into chairs.”

If not for the persistence and courage of the whistleblower, this abuse of children at Lil’ Explorers may not have come to light. The daycare’s owners told KSTP the people involved are no longer employed there, which is good. Unfortunately, incidents such as this are more commonplace than we’d like to believe. My daughter, Sibyl, suffered a similar situation at Small World Learning Center in Blaine. These instances of inappropriate conduct at daycares are way more prevalent than I ever realized until it happened to my family, and it’s my top priority to address this session.

In response, I have authored a bill to help remedy this problem by requiring daycare centers to have cameras in areas where toddlers and infants are present and retain video for 90 days. While my child’s daycare had cameras, they only kept it for a week, which creates a barrier to making felony charges stick. Again, the story KSTP covered only came to light because it was recorded on video and shared with the public.

I’ve been working with Democrat Rep. Sandra Feist on this bill because she has a constituent whose child was among the several who suffered mistreatment at Small World Learning Center in Blaine. It is encouraging to have bipartisan support for this legislation because votes from both parties will be requisite for passage in the House this year. I'll continue working to build a broad coalition of support because, at the very least, our children deserve to be safe while at daycare and families deserve to know this will be the case. My bill will act as a deterrent to horrific behavior and also let us know when bad actors are mistreating children so they can be dealt with accordingly.

Watch for more as this bill moves through the process. As always please don't hesitate to share your questions or concerns.

Sincerely,

Nolan






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State Rep. Nolan West
2nd Floor, Centennial Office Building
658 Cedar St., St. Paul, MN 55155
[email protected]       (651) 296-4226







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