MONTREAL --A woman found guilty of severely
beating two infants in her care was sentenced on
Thursday to 4.5 years in jail on aggravated assault
charges.
Cathy Matteau, who's in her mid-20s, has been in
jail since Feb. 23 when she was found guilty of
aggravated assault on the two baby girls in 2003.
The infants were seven months and 10 months old,
respectively.
The first infant suffered a skull fracture, six crushed
vertebrae and symptoms of shaken baby syndrome.
The baby is likely to suffer permanent damage from
the assault at the at-home day care Matteau operated.
The second baby suffered two cranial fractures but
is likely to escape permanent damage.
Matteau's lawyer had argued that a maximum
sentence of three years for the former child-care
worker should be sufficient.
© Canadian Press 2005
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Commentary:
at how many people who have histories of abuse
and neglect of their own children can work in child care
with other people's children. I'm not saying this is
the case with the woman who has been convicted,
but it put me in mind of this. I have had many women
I have worked with tell me they were going to
school to become child care workers, many time before
they had resolved their own parenting issues in their
own family. Even though people have to usually at least
have a criminal record check, privacy laws would protect
child protection authorities from disclosing whether
someone has a history with child protection
involvement. It's also so scary how many people
are operating child care out of their homes with
no licenses, no oversight, or awareness of what
their backgrounds might be. As a parent, it is
so difficult to find affordable, high-quality child
care. I hope BC gets on board with the Feds
quick for the $5 billion child care funding, before we
head to the polls again. BC's kids and families need
and deserve a much, much better child care system
than we currently have.
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Educational Reform Must Include Transparency
and Competition
By Nancy Salvato, (Wednesday, May 25, 2005).
Canada Free Press.
While it was somewhat surprising to read that preschoolers
are being suspended from school at alarming rates, that
teachers were having great difficulty managing these young
children did not catch me unawares. For all the media
coverage given to funding and accountability in the public
school system, in general very little attention is paid to
early childhood education. Private preschool centers are
forced to hire the least qualified to instruct those under
their care for the simple reason that they cannot afford
to properly compensate their teachers.
that requires education certification of instructors and
compensates at the level of other professional teachers.
Yet the one oasis where professional instructors are given
care of our youngest children has suffered from serious
financial abuse and irregularities. Lobbying from the
Head Start community has impeded "greater transparency
in the program" which would "enable the public and the
media to more closely examine the ways in which federal
Head Start funds are being spent" according to John
Boehner, Chairman of the Committee on Education and
the Workforce.
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