In a shocking complaint, Lays Torres de Almeida, mother of a two-year-old autistic child, revealed that her son was drugged at the René Biscaia Child Development Space daycarelocated in the West Zone of Rio de Janeiro.
According to Lays, the daycare educators constantly asked her to pick up her son early because “he was not sleeping” and “disturbed the sleep of his classmates.” This behavior of the teachers was persistent until The parents decided to take legal action and filed a formal complaint with the Tenth Regional Coordination of Education (CRE).
Despite the complaint, the Municipal Department of Education (SME) has not clarified what actions will be taken against the professionals involved. At the moment, The Civil Police is investigating whether the child was doped with Zolpidema controlled medication.
Details of the complaint and response from the authorities
“Several times they asked us (the teachers about his sleep). They asked us to pick him up, because he was the only student who was not sleeping and was disturbing the sleep of his classmates. They said he just wanted to play and was disturbing the others who were sleeping,” said Lays. .
This situation changed when the parents took the case to the CRE, which issued a notification ensuring that the child had the right to remain in daycare full-time and should not be removed before the stipulated time.
On June 16, the parents noticed something alarming in their son’s behavior: the child was limp, dizzy, unbalanced and fell when trying to walk. “When I bent down to get him to run and hug me, he fell for the first time. A mother came to pick him up and said, ‘Wow, he’s really sleepy.’ It was at that moment that I realized that my son was not well. Because he still tried to get up to come look for me and he fell again,” Lays recalled.
Worried, the parents took the child to the emergency room of the Rocha Faria Municipal Hospital, where the child fainted. “The doctor said that he was going to give him medication and see if it worked, if not they would intubate him. “They were the worst 20 minutes of my life,” said the mother.
After a stomach pump and administration of medication, the doctor suggested the family go to the police, since the tests indicated that the child had been drugged. The medical report classified the situation as acute poisoning.
The family registered the incident at the 35th DP (Campo Grande) and, due to the lack of immediate action by the Civil Police, They carried out tests in a private clinic that detected 0.18 milligrams of Zolpidem in the child’s body.
The medical report classified the situation as acute poisoning.
Photo:Or Globe
Ongoing investigation and reactions
On Monday, June 24, the parents visited the 10th CRE to request the relocation of their child to another educational unit. “How can a school that should welcome and care for him do something like that?” asked Luiz Felipe dos Santos, the boy’s father.
On Tuesday morning, the 25th, the parents went to the Santa Cruz Child Protection Council to register the case and obtain professional advice. For its part, The Municipal Education Secretariat announced that it opened an investigation and is collaborating with the Civil Police to determine if the child was administered any substances within the daycare and who was responsible. In addition, the SME has maintained contact with the family and has responded to the student’s request to transfer to another school.
The case was transferred to the 36th DP (Santa Cruz), where delegate Edezio de Castro Ramos Junior, head of the district, confirmed that an investigation is underway whether the child was drugged and with what intention.
“The child has already undergone a forensic examination. The mother also took him to a private clinic and that possibility arises (that he was drugged). We are going to add this documentation to the investigation. We are listening to the daycare staff and producing the investigation,” explained the delegate.
In addition, he added that they are working to understand what happened. “If it is proven that he was drugged, it is a very serious situation. But we cannot say anything hastily so as not to hinder the person’s investigations into the administration of the medication and whether it was administered,” he commented.
Investigators are determining whether there was intent in administering the medication. “If this were to happen (the administration of the medication), the person could be considered responsible for bodily injury, mistreatment or even another crime. But we will only know as the investigation progresses,” the delegate concluded.
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*This content was rewritten with the assistance of artificial intelligence, based on information from O Globo, and was reviewed by a journalist and an editor.
