Grants mother says son was found soaked in urine and visibly overheated at Cliff’s Amusement Park
GRANTS, N.M. — A Grants family is calling for a full investigation and accountability after a four-year-old boy was allegedly left alone in a hot van for approximately two hours during a daycare field trip to Cliff’s Amusement Park in Albuquerque.
The incident occurred Friday, August 1, during an outing organized by Small and Wondrous Child Development Center, a private childcare facility operating inside the New Mexico State University (NMSU) building in Grants.
According to the boy’s mother, Jade Flores, her son George was left buckled in his car seat inside a daycare transport van for roughly two hours after staff failed to realize he was missing during the unloading process.
The vans reportedly arrived at the park around 11:40 a.m. Allegedly, George was not found until approximately 1:30 p.m.
Flores, who also worked at the center at the time, says she was notified by a fellow teacher shortly after the discovery.
“He was scared, drenched in urine, and still buckled in his seat,” Flores said in a public statement. “No ambulance was called. No police report was filed. Instead, staff simply brought him into the park as if nothing had happened.”
According to Flores, her older son, James Jr., 7, who was also on the field trip, was the first to notice George was missing when the group gathered for lunch. That discovery set off a frantic search by staff, ultimately leading them back to the van.
Flores said her son was visibly overheated and emotionally distressed when he was finally located. She rushed him to Cibola General Hospital, where he was treated for dehydration and evaluated for heat-related illness.
Adding to the family’s concern is what Flores described as dishonesty and downplaying of the situation by daycare leadership. Initially, she said she was told George had only been left in the vehicle for 30 minutes and had already been medically checked—claims she later found to be untrue.
Flores has since resigned from her position at Small and Wondrous and has reported the incident to New Mexico State Police and the Early Childhood Education and Care Department (ECECD), which licenses childcare providers and staff in New Mexico.
“No parent should ever receive a phone call like the one I did,” she said. “No child should ever be forgotten in a hot van.” When reached by phone Monday, a staff member with Small and Wondrous told the Cibola Citizen, “No comment, thank you.”
According to the New Mexico Department of Health, a child’s body heats up three to five times faster than an adult’s. Temperatures inside a vehicle can rise by 20 degrees in just 10 minutes, making any prolonged confinement extremely dangerous.
Flores and her family say George is traumatized by the incident. The family is now calling for a full investigation by state authorities.
Editor’s Note: At 2:04 p.m. on the Cibola Citizen’s deadline to get this edition of the newspaper out, which is after our editorial deadline, we received this statement from Small and Wonderous Director Kori Marmon: There is no excuse that can undo what happened on Friday. I understand that simply saying, “I’m sorry” is not enough. As we move forward, we are committed to making meaningful changes to ensure that such an incident never happens again.
The staff members involved have been laid off. Rebuilding the trust of our families is a responsibility we take very seriously, and we are fully committed to doing so. We are incredibly grateful to the families who continue to place their trust in us, and we want them to know that we are using this experience as a turning point for change.
In the coming days and throughout the year, we will implement handson training focused especially on improving transportation procedures. These efforts are just the beginning of a broader plan for long-term improvement.
We ask for your patience as we work through this difficult time together and continue to process the events that occurred.