Ottawa daycare operator fined after toddlers shut in dark furnace room

[Praxius]

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2008/09/10/ot-daycare-080910.html

A woman who admitted she confined four toddlers in a dark furnace room while running a daycare in her home has been fined $5,000 and banned from working with children.

Helene Ranger, 50, was sentenced Wednesday after pleading guilty to operating a daycare out of her home in Ottawa's Orléans neighbourhood without a licence.

In addition to the fine and the ban, she was sentenced to three years probation for obstructing a police officer.

According to a statement of facts read out by Justice Ann Alder of the Ontario Court of Justice, Ranger confined seven children under age four in a basement room. Four more children under age two were confined in the dark in a furnace room.

About 30 parents, friends and relatives of the children who had been under her care were at the Ontario Court of Justice courtroom watching, and many said they felt the sentence was too light. One said she wants to see Ranger "rot in jail."

Alder said nothing the court can do will erase the pain suffered by the parents and their children as a result of Ranger's actions, but she noted that Ranger has suffered from the story being in the media, had no prior convictions and pleaded guilty to the charges.

Oh, she has suffered from the media reports and her being found out? Someone give her a smack will ya?

Ranger was arrested at her home on Turner Crescent in Orleans on Oct. 29, 2007. A parent had complained that his daughter came home with a black eye, prompting a police and Children's Aid Society investigation.

She was originally charged with four counts of forcible confinement and a charge of obstructing police. However, the forcible confinement charges were later dropped as the Crown was unsure it would have enough evidence for a conviction.

If you can't do a job properly, don't have patience and too slack to get a proper license, don't do the friggin job.

They should have chucked her in jail.