Wesley school, don't you read these comments? You are losing the respect of the community and your existing families. This will not blow over!

I would have serious doubts about sending my child to Wesley following this incident. It is quite obvious staff were not doing their job. When you decide to take preschool age children to a pool, you better have adequate coverage and those children should never be left unattended! It's time to accept the blame, learn from this horrible tragedy, and give this grieving family some peace. Do the RIGHT thing! This is about a child losing his life, it's not about losing a child at a grocery store. The community would have a lot more respect for your business if the administration was honest, remorseful and apologetic!

I agree with the above comments. I wll never sign up my child with any Wesley programms.

We are now two weeks on from this tragic event. I believe the investigation should be completed by now and a final report explaining what happened should be released soon, in my opinion. I'd be interested to hear what DCS is telling the family, are they giving any idea on when their report will be completed?

I am of the belief that Wesley is being told by their attorneys to remain silent, aside from answering the investigator's questions. Self incrimination is likely the reason. The report will hold all the answers.

I agree. Four year old children should not be swimming in camp, however this is NOT on the parents. They trusted Wesley as most of us did. This tragedy changes everything. Wesley- stand up and accept your consequences. You should have had ample staff- two to one at least at that age. Screw your attorneys... They can't save you. No matter the legal outcome, Glenview parents will not and should not trust their children's safety to you. This was 100% preventable!! And sweet, dear Vicente- rest now... Justice will be served. God bless

I was there the day it happened I will never forget it and i will forever remember Vinente and think about his family for the rest of my life. This tragedy should have never happened, the pool was too crowded that day. Bottom line someone wasnt doing their job and any 4 year old should have had a life jacket on especially when there were so many kids.Being a parent myself it was an extremely difficult thing to watch. I hope the Cardenas's family can get the answers they deserve and somehow eventually be able to find peace.

Wesley Camp Staff, Own up to what the family wants. ANSWERS. Why wasnt the child wearing his life vest, knowing he was special needs. He was a neighbors friend of ours. In the same program at Westbrook Preschool. Don't you give swim tests with the kids? All 4 year olds should wear life vests. All counselors should be watching their group. Life guards, at a crowded pool, cannot be responsible to watch one child. YOU ARE. THe parents signed up their children in your care and you didnt take responsibilty. I wouldnt be surprised if your camp ends. Park district camps give a hard test for the kids. My son had to jump in the deep end, with life quard and swim along side of him/her, with tube, and if my child was to grab on to that tube at any time, VEST, at the end of the 2 lap test in the deep water, if he tends to be winded of sink of sort wailing his arms to the end.........VEST!! What are your procedures. A waiver stating your child can swim in your program. With no testing of sort. Just rely on the child parents to say he can go to the pool? Shame on you. God bless this angel child that is not in the safe arms of god. TALK TO THE FAMILY. They want answers, and so do we, as a community.

Sorry, I meant to say, he is NOW in the arms of god, not, NOT. Horrible mistake. I was just so angry with this whole situation, not knowing, so that our community, can at least have answers too, so we dont make the mistake of sending our child to your camp. Since you dont seem to care about giving answers to the poor grieving family of a innocent 4 almost 5 yr. old child! Again, SHAME ON YOU!

Wesley school, your investigation is over. You alone are responsible for the life of a child. Get off your fancy chairs in the office over there and start explaining.

I also have to voice my utter disbelief as to how Wesley Center has handled this.
Does anyone know what the latest is on the investigations?

Last I heard, the current Wesley families will be asking the Wesley Board and their current administration for a meeting. Without any information, many of the families are still very wary leaving their children in the center's care. I also know that many of the families have been contacted by a few attorneys. The parents would not be able to sue Wesley directly but they can sue on behalf of their children. Especially those who were on site that day. It was explained that Wesley had a "duty to care" for these kids and though, tragically, we lost Vicente, each and every one of the other 18 children were put in harm's way and were in a dangerous situation. It was explained to me by one attorney that she speculates that the main reason for Wesley's silence, to all involved, is because if each parent knew what the Wesley staff were doing at the time of the loss, every parent would be suing the center individually for failure to provide safe environment.

We actually took our child out of the program (he was in the same class as Vicente) immediately, but I would like to hear how this meeting goes down. I agree with the attorney, they (Wesley) must be very scared that the investigation results will be made public. Regardless of the impact, those results MUST be made public. The community has a right to know where the dange lies (i.e. Wesley, Park District, Lifeguards, etc.) even if it appears obvious to me.

The children who witnessed this event were victims as well. No child was safe that day, and an innocent child paid the price. Not to mention the grief and emotional trauma each of those children experienced. I am curious to hear the responses that parents received when they retrieved their children from the school that day. Business as usual? Unacceptable. There are no words for this tragedy and no child is safe under the direction and care of this school. God bless you Vicente.

of the group. Luckily I was wearing very distinctive clothing and they found us. But I wonder now, was there ever a background check done as me as parent? Should there have been? I am not relaying this story to in any way cast blame, just something I've been thinking about since we found out about this tragedy.

The teachers were probably instructed not to mention the accident at all at pickup on Friday and to just shoo the kids and parents out the door. They (Director/board members) probably wanted more time to gather information about the tragedy and to communicate with the daycare's lawyer before having 18 sets of parents demanding answers.

Has anyone been given any update on when the investigation results will be released.

Patch Editors - any comments from the school or the Glenview PD on their investigation?

@SadParent, would you like us to print your comment as a Letter to the Editor? We know you'd like to get this info to as many Glenview parents as possible.

@SadParent, you can e-mail me your letter directly and we will run it on the site: joanna@patch.com

@ A Sad Parent - I finally came around and e-mailed Carolina about my experience with Wesley. I am a bit disappointed though, as she gave no definitive answer on when they plan on releasing their report or why they won't allow the Glenview PD to release THEIR report. I am shocked that two institutions whose missions are to provide the public with safety are avoiding releasing information that could the youngest members of our community safe. It's shocking!!

Just to be clear:
1. The sole purpose of my initial response was to help the individuals on this blog who choose to be "willfully uninformed". Lawyers that I have worked with expect clients to respond "no comment" to any inquiry regarding anything relating to an incident. This was a tragic accident and not knowing the details on "your" timeline can be hard. It has nothing to do with hiding information and anyone that did a little research would have learned that.
2. I am appalled at all of you that continue to use your children as pawns. You clearly state Wesley is an unsafe place (I totally disagree) and yet you keep your children there. Clearly speaks to the type of people you are.
3. To be clear, one of my children were at the pool that day.

1. I completely understand the "no comment" advice, however, that is not what happened here. Parents have commented that the teachers admitted to outright lying to the parents about the events - as instructed by the directors. Also, in their letter to the parents the evening of the tragedy, they omitted the fact that Vicente has passed away 3 hours prior to the letter being sent, making it sound like he was recovering.

2. My son was removed the moment we got back into town, but as some have said, finding daycare with openings appears to be the stumbling block.

3. I pray for your child that they didn't see this terrible tragedy or worse yet, be the ones to find him at the bottom of the pool.

Oh one other thing Rick, why do you have to disparage people posting here? No one is attacking you or anyone at Wesley personally.

I would also like to mention, that the teachers at the camp are not the counselors. From what I have heard. They hire out counselors like any camp does. There is so much blame on everyone here, it is getting rather sad. We, as parents, even if our kids are older then the age limit, want answers, and they deserve answers, I would want to. My neighbor was in his class at Westbrook, he was in the special Ed portion of that class in preschool. With the same teacher. He may have not been as special needs as others were, but still, that person in charge of that child should have been watched. I know, they wonder, the kids. It is hard to keep track. But with a ratio of that matter, it should have been prevented. So hurry up and end this investication so we can hear and tell our children how to behave at pools and places that require more attention. This should have never happened. Life guards, and believe me, I have watched them for years, have a whole system down. They do drills during swimming time, they have eyes. The pool was so crowded, that it is too bad their eyes did not see in time. I hope the The family gets the story, and SOON! This has been dragging on way to long. WAY TO LONG!!!

There seems to be some confusion at DCFS- The licensing department says they are close to completing their investigation but the lead investigator from DCFS (Carolina Bono) says they've extended the time of the process and that it is up in the air as to when they could be done. Glenview Police Department also says they are within days of releasing the Police report but they cannot until DCFS is done with their part. Yes, you are correct, the preschool director is on leave. One parent told me that they thought it was because she is working with her legal team but I do not know that to be the case.

Based on the known facts in this tragedy, I have to believe that DCFS is doing a full scale investigation on Wesley as a whole, there is no way a drowning investigation should take this long. If that is the case, they should allow Glenview PD to release their findings. Not having this done before school started leaves the possibility that families could be left in the lurch if DCFS were to come in and close down Wesley (again, the day care center in Lincolnshire was forced to close).