Child Drowns In Church Baptismal Pool In Indianapolis (VIDEO)

A one-year-old child from Indiana who died Wednesday is believed to have drowned in the baptismal pool of a church where he regularly attended daycare, the Associated Press reported.

Employees at Praise Fellowship Assembly of God in Indianapolis found Juan Cardenas Wednesday afternoon in a pool used to perform baptisms, which was filled with about two feet of standing water. The toddler had become lost in the church shortly after arriving for daycare and workers were called in to search for him, according to WISH-TV.

When Cardenas was finally found unresponsive, emergency crews were called and he was rushed to St. Vincent Hospital in critical condition, where he was later pronounced dead, the station reported.

Investigators are now interviewing witnesses to determine what went wrong at the daycare center, which was cited for 18 minor violations the last time it was inspected in November 2011, according to RTV6.

"We have our homicide investigators here, along with members of our child abuse team and (Child Protective Services) here trying to determine how the child actually got there," Kendale Adams, Indianapolis police public information officer, told the station.

Police do not believe Cardenas was the victim of foul play and no arrests have been made, according to the station.

But at least one child care advocacy organization has spoken out about the incident, saying it could have been prevented if laws required child care centers based at faith-based centers to be licensed by the state, the Indianapolis Star reported.

According to an administrator who spoke with the paper, Indiana's Bureau of Child Care currently exempts child care ministries from a number of state regulations including medication monitoring, nutritional requirements, and a provision known as the "sight and sound" rule, which states that children must be within seeing and hearing distance of an adult at all times.

"This was preventable," Emily Barrow of Child Care Answers in Indianapolis told the Star. "Licensed facilities have a sight and sound regulation; child care ministries do not."

Church officials have not responded to media inquiries and have voluntarily closed services for the week, WISH-TV reports. An autopsy of Cardenas was performed this morning and results are pending.

Comments

[Mimi Vadillo Escalante]

12:13 PM on 05/18/2012

i used to take my children there...

[Roberta Hockenberry]

05:32 AM on 03/02/2012

There can be a lot of benifits to this type of child care but we have to make sure that they are required to follow all of the safty guildlines that centers are. If they had more regulations at this place then a teacher would of been with the child and there wouldnt of been any water sitting in the tub. We have to make sure that our children are safe!!

[recovering Catholic]

06:08 PM on 02/26/2012

My god! If this story doesn't drip with irony, nothing does.

[thebigbike]

12:21 PM on 02/25/2012

Shut these death traps down !! if it saves the life of only one child it will be worth it !

[Karissa36]

12:32 AM on 02/25/2012

This seems like an odd loophole, but I think I know how it occurred. I attended a church for many years with a nursery for Sunday services. Parents would drop off babies and toddlers in the nursery. There was an adult regularly assigned, but whenever too many kids were present, parents would send in a few teenage daughters to help out. I spent many Sundays helping out in the nursery.

Looking back on it now, there is no way we were ever within minimum State requirements for a licensed daycare. Not with staffing, facilities, space, etc. It was just a big room with some toys and cribs in it. It was also free, and for a limited time period. It doesn't seem fair to require State licensing for something like this, when it is just short-term babysitting.

Once a church moves to a formal paid daycare model, the State licensing should be required.

[plcox7182]

03:47 PM on 02/24/2012

Oh YES OF COURSE.......had there been a LICENSE hanging on the WALL THIS WOULD HAVE NOT HAPPENED! Good grief!!! I suppiose that license would have automatically reached down and grabbed him keeping him from falling in????????? ALL kids are supposed to be WATCHED AT ALL TIMES...........NOT just licensed ones! And yes, licensed ones have more rules and regulations to follow but THAT DOESN'T MEAN THEY DO!!!

[Z Stone]

10:34 PM on 02/24/2012

If they were licensed, action could have been taken against them to bring things up to code a long time ago, before this tragedy happened. It's not the first time a child has died in the care of a church, either. Religious institutions seem to get away with everything, just because of what they are. Children get molested, raped, verbally and emotionally abused, and they just keep getting away with it. This is sick, and somebody better put a stop to this BS.

[thebigbike]

12:22 PM on 02/25/2012

but they're CHURCH people don't they follow the law and do what's right at all times ?? yeah right

[seanymph007]

03:26 PM on 02/24/2012

Rest in Peace Child.
Condolences to everyone this has affected

[offcenterlevi]

02:48 PM on 02/24/2012

Jesus saves.

[mtknibbesr]

02:41 PM on 02/24/2012

HEADS WILL ROLL OVER THIS ONE AND THEY SHOULD.

[LudeDude714]

02:06 PM on 02/24/2012

How was this area even accessible? I have built and remodeled churches that have Baptismal pools and they were always behind a door and the door was usually locked. A one year old can barely walk much less be able to wander the church and get into the Baptismal area. This church needs some major staff restructuring and maybe some remodeling so this never happens again, it is sad that it took a death of a child for them to see the obvious.

[samjay45]

03:41 PM on 02/24/2012

I too have never been in a church that left the Baptismal unlocked. This is the most neglectful thing I have ever heard of in any daycare. I cared for other peoples' children myself and have never left one where I could not see or hear them and even if I could only hear them would check on them every 2 or 3 minutes.
This church should be sued.

[Joebudgie]

04:04 PM on 02/24/2012

Absolutely right. A five dollar lock on the door leading to the Baptismal area would have saved a life. How stupid not to have had one installed.

[bmitche]

02:05 PM on 02/24/2012

What it all boils down to is that the child was not being watched.

[smardy]

01:55 PM on 02/24/2012

If a child dies alone, hjat better place is there to die than in the baptistry?

[Joebudgie]

04:05 PM on 02/24/2012

You are a heartless S.O.B.

[sjdconsulttrain]

01:54 PM on 02/24/2012

Its funny reading these articles the God bashers saying if there was a God he wouldnt have died. So please help me understand...God should let everyone live forever and ever? Nobody who believes in God should die? .....its sounds so ignorant. Please stop with the church bashing accidents happen everywhere.

[mmsuki]

02:32 PM on 02/24/2012

Was this God's will, punishing a "sinner"?

[whitetrashathiest]

03:53 PM on 02/24/2012

Obviously not.Fav'd .

[runaroundsue]

01:51 PM on 02/24/2012

The so called "sight and sound" rule only applying to LICENSED daycare facilities is ridiculous if you consider that ANYONE who is in charge of another's child would just automatically if not instinctually make sure that the little ones whose very lives are in their hands ARE within sight at all times! The "sound" part I'm not so sure about- is that to say that a child can be in the next room playing with a razor blade but as long as you can hear him it means he's ok? I would NEVER not know every move a child/children makes that someone has TRUSTED me to care for!

[Pitmom2]

01:39 PM on 02/24/2012

Any body of water can be lethal for children - spas, fonts, bathtubs, kiddie pools, adult pools, creeks, lakes, even mop buckets. Small children are top heavy. All they need to do is lean over and their body follows their head right into the water. Most times you don't even hear a splash. Years ago the builder of my own swimming pool said to me, "Imagine this pool is a lion chained up in your yard. Do whatever it takes to keep your kids, and any inquisitive neighborhood kids, safe from it." For me, that also includes any body of water that children might have access to. Such a sad preventable tragedy.

[Andres64]

04:16 PM on 02/24/2012

Dangers of Dihydrogen Monoxide

http://www.dhmo.org/facts.html