Daycare Center 'Mistakenly' Served Bleach Solution to Children, Months After 3 Employees Were Charged with Alleged Abuse By Desiree Anello

A prestigious New York daycare center is closing its doors indefinitely after children were accidentally served from a water pitcher containing a cleaning solution.

Months after Bright Horizons Daycare had three employees indicted in connection with alleged abuse, an employee “mistakenly” served a bleach solution to children on Oct. 27.

An email was sent from the Health Department confirming that the center’s preschool program would be indefinitely shut down after the incident “exposed children to a toxic chemical,” according to CBS News.

For its part, the company expressed that the incident was a mistake. 

“The safety and well-being of the children in our care is our highest priority,” the daycare said in a statement to the outlet. “Unfortunately, the staff member had mistakenly filled the pitcher from a dispenser which contained a diluted cleaning solution — prepared daily for sanitizing toys. This solution consists of two gallons of water mixed with a small amount of bleach.”

A Bright Horizons spokesperson alleged that a teacher drank the cleaning solution and contacted poison control once they noticed something was wrong.

Bright Horizons at Columbus Circle did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comments.

“To me, it’s shocking,” Erin O’Connor, director of the NYU Early Childhood Education program, told CBS New York. “One of the most basic structural indicators is that you have things set up in a way that there’s no way a toxic material would be near a water supply for children. It gives me pause about how much was done in response to the first incident.”

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“It just doesn’t feel like they have child safety in their best interest,” she added. “To me, it sounds like they care more about their appearance, like how they come off in hiding their mistakes.”

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This incident comes just months after three employees — Evelyn Vargas, Shakia Henley and Latia Townes — were arrested for allegedly abusing up to nine children between the ages of one and two years old, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office confirmed to PEOPLE at the time.

“I feel like they should’ve been 100% on their best behavior,” a mother told CBS News of the daycare. “It’s just hard to believe this kind of mistake happened, especially after the first incident.”  

At the time of her arrest, Vargas had been accused of dragging a toddler by her hair, force-feeding children ginger shots, stuffing their mouths with tissue, placing packing tape across a child’s mouth, and restraining children to chairs. 

Meanwhile, Townes was accused of hitting three toddlers in the head with a metal bottle and spraying a toddler in the face from a bottle containing soap mixed with bleach. 

While the former employees have pleaded not guilty in the ongoing cases, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office announced their indictment on July 30, stating that all three employees are facing multiple counts of Endangering the Welfare of a Child. Vargas faces additional charges of Assault, Strangulation in the Second Degree, and Attempted Assault. Townes has also been charged with three counts of Attempted Assault in the Second Degree.

“As alleged, these day care workers abused and criminally mistreated multiple toddlers, no older than 24 months,” District Attorney Bragg wrote in a press release at the time. “My office’s Child Abuse Bureau is dedicated to protecting our youngest New Yorkers and is here to help them.”