Child Returns Home from Kindergarten with Bruises in Yerevan

Facebook user Arax Martirosyan has published photos of her child with the caption "Our severely unsuccessful experience with a private kindergarten." She states: "We thought long and hard about how to respond to the incident that occurred with our little one at the private kindergarten the other day. At this moment, perhaps the most appropriate response on our part is to raise awareness of the issue, to draw attention to the gaps that exist in this sector, as we refused to file a report at the Central Police Department. However, such criminal negligence and carelessness cannot go unpunished.

For a few days, we have been sending our 2-year-old to 'Tata', a private kindergarten located near the Municipality, and yesterday we tried leaving our child there for an extended period for the first time—6 to 7 hours. During that time, the staff assured us that the child was calm and fell asleep with some difficulty. However, at the end of the day, I found my child with two large bruises on her forehead, swollen, with a reddish-blue tint, red marks on her jaw, scrapes on her thigh, and red marks on her belly—all within a few hours, while they assured me that everything was fine.

I was told that while sleeping, my child hit her head against the crib, even though they previously assured me that children are never left alone in the children's sleeping quarters. Yet, our child has two large bruises and other marks on her jaw, and it is hard to imagine what could have caused them. I want to draw the attention of the relevant authorities to childcare centers and private kindergartens, particularly regarding who receives licenses to operate such facilities, whether they actually obtain licenses at all, how safe our children are in such centers, and who is responsible for the safety of our children in these places, because such careless negligence towards a two-year-old is unimaginable.

I urge parents to trust only those centers that have surveillance for children of this age, even though we are attentive parents and our choice was made after extensive research. P.S. We understood from the outset that adaptation would require days, and we could even accept that our child might have scrapes or bruises, but is this much really acceptable for a single day?"