From left to right: Sara MacDowell, Veronica Zarate, and Christiana Klosterboer discuss their lawsuit against a day care owner in Coolidge, Ariz. (WPHO).
A group of Arizona mothers is suing a day care owner after they claim she abused their children, including locking them in a "dark room" as punishment.
Local CBS affiliate KPHO spoke with three of the mothers who sued an unnamed day care owner who runs a home-based business in Coolidge, a city around 55 miles southeast of Phoenix. The mothers of 19 children filed the lawsuit in Arizona's Maricopa County, claiming that the woman punished the children she watched by locking them in a dark room and threatening them. Three of those mothers — Sara MacDowell, Veronica Zarate, and Christiana Klosterboer — spoke to KPHO about their children's behavior after they came home from the day care.
MacDowell, whose five children spent time at the day care, told KPHO that after a few months of using the service, one of her daughters "would have incredible night terrors, would wake up in the middle of the night screaming." Her other children were suddenly "afraid to be left alone," were scared of the dark, and said, "The monsters are going to get me."
The upsetting reaction prompted her to hide a tape recorder in her son's car seat, which captured about an hour of conversation between the day care owner and her children. The day care owner can be heard on that audio, which was shared with KPHO, saying, "Okay, you go in the dark room," adding, "[B]ecause that's where bad kids go."
The children can be heard screaming, "Let me out!"
Zarate and Klosterboer's children also reportedly told their mothers about the "dark room."
Law&Crime reached out to the attorneys representing the mothers but did not receive a response. KPHO reported that the day care owner is not currently facing criminal charges, but one of the mothers filed a police report against her.
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