SAN ANTONIO – Ten minutes felt like an eternity to the staff at Greenacres Child Care Center, who described the moments they were in lockdown when a woman tried to break in.
Twenty-five students ranging from 16 months to 5 years old, along with five employees, locked themselves in a restroom as the woman tried getting into the building.
“So they’re asking us like, ‘Where’s my dad? Where’s my daddy?’ So I just had to hold them and be like, ‘It’s OK. They’re going to be here. Stay with me,’” said Jennifer Cervantes, a teacher at the day care.
Cervantes said the woman tried to break in just before the kids’ nap time, shattering more than eight windows.
“She started banging on the door like she’s determined to come in the center,” said Maria Cervantes, owner of the center.
San Antonio police believe the woman was having a mental health issue at the time and thought her kids were inside and being held captive.
“I walked right (toward the front) because right here you can see the window, and you just saw glass coming in,” said Jennifer Cervantes, pointing to the damage.
As they rushed the kids into the restroom, closing and locking the door behind them, they could no longer see where the suspect was and only hear the chaos outside, Jennifer Cervantes said.
“We thought she was inside, and at that moment, all of us were like, ‘If she comes in, all the teachers are by the door.’ We were covering the door. If anything was going to happen, it was going to go through us first,” she said.
Luckily, the woman never made it inside. SAPD arrested her for criminal mischief and an active warrant for possession of a controlled substance. Now, the family-run center is left picking up the pieces and trying to move forward.
“Truthfully, scared, worried about what could have happened to them if she had gotten in. Maybe she would have had a knife or a gun or something,” said Michael Cervantes.
Greenacres Child Care will welcome students back on Tuesday with an Easter party. They will focus on safety training with the kids for the rest of the week. They say previous training kept everyone safe on Wednesday.
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