Jalen Knox-Perkins

Another precious little baby has died after being left in a day care vehicle.

Four-month-old Jalen Knox-Perkins was left alone in a Bumble Bee Learning Center van for about four hours. He was found dead.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Marcus Perkins last saw his 4-month-old son alive about 8:30 Thursday morning when the baby, snug in his car seat, was placed in the day care van that picked him up every day.

"I make sure he gets on that van safe every morning," Perkins, 28, said Thursday afternoon, surrounded by family. "I watch them strap him in safe every morning. I don't let him out of my sight 'til he's safe."

The boy, Jalen Knox-Perkins, died Thursday after he was left unattended in the van for about four hours outside Bumble Bee Learning Center, 3942 N. 76th St., according to an e-mail from Milwaukee police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz. Jalen was found about 1:50 p.m., Schwartz said.

Bumble Bee Learning Center is owned by the same company that runs Alphabet Street Learning Center, where an employee was charged recently with breaking the arms of two children.

Both facilities will be shut down immediately while the state Department of Children and Families investigates, said department spokeswoman Erika Monroe-Kane.

The van's driver, a 44-year-old man, was arrested on a felony charge of leaving a child unattended in a child care vehicle, Schwartz said.

The man has no record with Milwaukee police but has two arrest warrants with the Waukesha County Sheriff's Department for paternity, Schwartz said.

The Bumble Bee and Alphabet Street learning centers are just blocks apart on N. 76th St. and are owned by Willye Banks.

Some of Banks' employees said Thursday that she would release a statement about the death, but a statement was never received, and Banks could not be reached for comment.

Pamela Coleman, the Alphabet Street employee accused of breaking the arms of two children, pleaded not guilty in March to two counts of physical abuse of a child, according to online court records. Coleman, 42, is due in court later this month.

What else has to happen before the Bumble Bee and Alphabet Street learning centers are permanently shut down?

How many more broken bones? How many more deaths?

I don't understand why the workers at Bumble Bee didn't become concerned immediately when baby Jalen wasn't at the center.

Don't they have some sort of procedure in place in terms of attendance?

If a child isn't going to be at the center on a given day, doesn't a parent or guardian need to call and give notice of the child's absence?

If the child was expected to be there and he didn't arrive, workers probably would have found Jalen in a matter of minutes. Instead, he was left in the van for hours.

The driver certainly didn't carry out one of his most important responsibilities, making sure no child is left unattended in the van.

My heart goes out to Jalen's family.