Petrolia daycare provider gets house arrest, probation for toddler’s near-drowning

As a team of doctors and nurses frantically worked on her lifeless toddler and kept yelling, “pulse check,” Gillian Burnett prayed to God to bring him back, even if it meant he’d be completely different.

Article content

“I just wanted my baby back,” she recalled Friday while sobbing in a Sarnia courtroom as her former daycare provider, Paula Maness, was sentenced to house arrest and probation for criminal negligence causing bodily harm.

Article content

Burnett took the court through what happened on Jan. 24, 2023 – “the worst day of my life” – as doctors tried to revive 20-month-old Waylon Saunders, unconscious and frozen after falling into a backyard pool at Maness’ unlicensed home daycare in Petrolia.

“The cold that radiated off his body is something I’ve never experienced before,” the boy’s mother said as tears streamed down her face.

Saunders defied the odds and made a miraculous recovery, although he has several issues stemming from the hypothermia and near-drowning and his long-term outlook is still unknown. As he began sentencing Maness Friday, Superior Court Justice George King told Burnett she delivered one of the most moving victim-impact statements he’s heard during his nine years on the bench.

Article content

“This was a nightmare that every parent fears at all times,” he said. “The sheer horror of the event and the agony of the issues will be with Ms. Burnett and her family.”

Then King turned to Maness, 51, who pleaded guilty Friday to the criminal negligence charge the OPP laid in February 2023, about three weeks after the incident. The judge said she showed extremely negligent behavior, but pointed out it was caused by omission and not commission.

“As terrible as it was,” he said.

The court heard backyard Burnett had expressed concerns to Maness about the layout of the Juniper Crescent home and a door leading to the pool before she started sending Saunders and her three-year-old daughter to the unlicensed, but legal, daycare about two weeks earlier . Maness promised the children never play in the backyard and the door leading there was too heavy for a toddler to open on their own.

Article content

But due to a basement flood, the back door was propped open to air it out on Jan. 24, 2023. Shortly before 3 pm that Tuesday, a Petrolia man walking his dog heard screaming from the backyard and, when he ran to help, saw a frantic Maness in the pool and Saunders lying on the concrete, the court heard.

“His lips were blue,” assistant Crown attorney Nicole Godfrey said while reading an agreed statement of facts.

Saunders was rushed to hospital in Petrolia and later London – the little boy was under water for approximately five minutes, according to a post on the London Health Sciences Centre’s website following his miraculous recovery – where the outlook was grim. Burnett previously said she was told by doctors there was a less-than-10-per-cent chance he would survive. Then, she was told he could possibly be brain dead.

Article content

“I began to mourn the loss of my son,” Burnett said Friday in court.

But Saunders woke up in hospital while his family was playing a video of his sister speaking. After nearly two weeks at the Children’s Hospital in London, the young boy returned home.

However, he’s still dealing with a myriad of issues, detailed in a $9-million lawsuit filed last summer. Saunders has paralysis on his left side, is potentially blind in his left eye, and his behavior, cognition and communicative skills have deteriorated, the lawsuit says.

This after suffering a hypoxic brain injury, myoclonic seizures, a lung injury, a nuchal ligamentous injury, and severe respiratory infections, among other injuries, the court document says. He continues to suffer and requires ongoing treatment, but the full extent of the effects of his near-drowning is not known, it says.

Article content

The civil case is still before the courts. But the criminal case is now over, with Maness beginning her two-year conditional sentence Friday featuring house arrest for the first half and a curfew for the latter portion. During that time, and while on probation for one year, she’s banned from contacting the Burnett-Saunders family or from working or volunteering in a role where she’d be a caregiver of children younger than 13.

The sentence was suggested by both Godfrey and defense lawyer Aaron Prevost. King agreed to impose it and pointed out there’s a high bar to reject joint submissions based on case law. He also said no sentence will alleviate the trauma the boy and his family experienced.

Burnett told The Observer after the sentencing she would’ve preferred Maness go to jail.

Article content

“My son is going to have to live with these affections for the rest of his life and the images in my head will forever be there,” she said. “I don’t think that it’s fair that I have to live with this for the rest of my life while she gets to enjoy her children.”

But Burnett added although it wasn’t what she wanted, she was OK with house arrest as long as it had the ban on caring for children younger than 13. That was also a term included in her release order in February 2023.

Prevost pointed out in court his client didn’t show any malicious behavior and the incident has had a profound impact on her mental health and her finances.

“This is obviously every parents’ – on both sides – worst nightmare,” Prevost said.

Maness declined a chance to address the court.

[email protected]

@ObserverTerry

Article content