Daycare Owner Arrested After Being Caught Taking Naps With Children
A local Omaha manÂ is behind bars today, but is claiming that he did nothing wrong, and is being falsely accused of crimes he did not commit. Anthony Parks, 34, is a daycare providerÂ in Omaha. Police arrested him earlyÂ Wednesday morning after being receiving complaintsÂ by parents that he was âlaying downâ with the children during their nap time.Parks admitted to police that he was, in fact, taking naps with the children, but also claims he never had any un-natural motives behind laying with them.âIâm just exhausted by the time their nap time rolls around,â Parks. âHave you ever watched after 14 3-year-olds? Itâs not easy. The kids were all laying down for their nap one afternoon, and I was so run down, I just laid down with them. The nap, along with the whale noises IÂ play from the white-noise machine I bought for the kids, really made me feel refreshed. So, I just started doing it every single day.âParents of the childrenÂ are outraged by Parksâ actions,Â andÂ say that none of them ever thought there was anything âfunkyâ going on.âItâs not like we thought he was laying there to get some sort of sexual pleasure out of it, being surrounded by a dozen toddlers,â said mother Mary Lambert, whose daughter Kathy, 2, frequents the daycare. âMy God, Iâd almost rather heÂ wereÂ molesting them. That would be easier to understand. Years of therapy could fix that problem. The problem that couldnât be fixed would be one of those kids waking up and running off because theyâre not being supervised.âParks is speaking out against the accusations, and promises parents he had the whole thing under control and would never let one of his students get hurt.âEveryone needs a nap once in a while, andÂ it wasnât a big deal,â said Parks. âIâm hoping that these parents understand that Iâm not a very sound sleeper, so even the slightest little noise, and I would have darted right up.ââI just canât believe anything he says,â said Lambert. âHonestly, we all thought he was shady from the beginning. Not very often a man owns a daycare in the first place. Plus, that bushy mustache and glasses, and the fact that he drives a windowless van with clowns and balloons painted on it, itâs a little unnerving. But frankly, the kids loved him. Now I have to tell Kathy, every time she asks where Mr. Tony is, that she canât see him anymore because heâs been a bad boy.âÂ