Two mothers accuse Washington day care of waxing children's eyebrows
Officials at the Washington State Department of Early Learning are investigating the allegations.
Washington State Department of Early Learning have launched an investigation into allegations made against a daycare centre in the Columbia Basin College campus in Pasco, Washington. Two mothers have reportedly accused the daycare staff of waxing their children's eyebrows without their permission.
The daycare is run by the Boys and Girls Club of Benton and Franklin Counties, which has said that they are taking the allegations seriously.
Alyssa Salgado, 19, said that her two-year-old daughter, Lilayiah, was fine when she dropped her to the daycare on Thursday morning (1 February) but when she picked her up later in the day, she noticed a missing patch of hair between her eyebrows. "I, like, got a closer look and I saw she was missing her patch of hair because she has a unibrow and she was born like that," Salgado told WLTX News channel.
She added that she took up the matter with the daycare's director on the night of the incident and even the next morning. She even contacted other mothers at the daycare and found another child's mother complaining the same.
Glenda Maria Cruz, whose two-year old son was also at the daycare, said that her boy's eyebrows were also waxed. "I tried to touch his face. He doesn't let me touch his face. He says, 'No, No, stop,' and it hurts me because that's my baby," Cruz said, according to the television station.
Cruz said that when she and Salgado confronted the nursery director on the matter, "she started laughing in our faces".
Officials at the Washington State Department of Early Learning visited the centre on Monday as part of their investigation, which they estimate could take 30 days to complete.
Salgado told the news channel that she is happy the complaints are being taken seriously. "I hope that they figure out who did that do my daughter." She said that she even took her daughter to a doctor to check if the patch of hair from her unibrow was missing and the doctor confirmed.
As of now, Salgado and Cruz have taken their children out of the daycare, the news channel added. The mothers shared their shocking experience on social media, following which Columbia Basin College issued a statement on the matter on Facebook.
"The Boys and Girls Club, Pasco School District, and Columbia Basin College take these allegations seriously and will work to support the investigation process," the statement read.