N.J. day care worker fired after serving bleach in drinks

JERSEY CITY, N.J. — An employee has been fired and a New Jersey day care center reopened Friday, one day after more than two dozen children and adults were accidentally served a mix of water and bleach.

The parent company of the Growing Tree Learning II in Jersey City said the center opened after several state and local agencies investigated Thursday’s incident.

Twenty-eight children and two adults ingested the bleach after an employee mistakenly poured drinks from a bottle that was being used to clean tables.

Keith Kearney executive director of United Cerebral Palsy of Hudson County, the day care center’s parent company, said the employee has been fired. He said it was her first day on the job and she was a substitute teacher’s aide.

The adults and children had complained of nausea, lightheadedness and stomachaches.

Jersey City Medical Center-Barnabas Health contacted a poison control center for guidance and treated the patients by giving them liquids, said hospital spokesman Mark Rabson. All were released Thursday afternoon.

A spokesman for New Jersey’s Department of Children and Families, which licenses the center, said the agency was investigating.