Making day-care center playgrounds safe

Greg Risling

COSTA MESA -- Pam Wiener can’t bring herself to vacuum her house

sometimes.

That job was usually left to her 3-year-old son, Brandon, who was

meticulous in his ways and had a penchant for cleanliness.

Simple chores have become laborious undertakings for Wiener since her

son was killed May 3 by a man allegedly bent on killing innocent

children. Brandon and 4-year-old Sierra Soto were run over by Steven

Allen Abrams who barreled his car onto a playground filled with children.

Wiener has joined hands with other parents at the school traumatized

by the tragedy and begun plans to establish a foundation.

“I need to focus my energy on something positive,” Wiener said. “We

are just beginning the first stages of the foundation, but it’s something

we are very determined to do.”

At this point, the group of parents only have a name for the

foundation -- For Our Children’s Ultimate Safety, or FOCUS -- and a goal

to provide funding for safety structures at day-care centers.

Before the freakish event at Southcoast Early Childhood Learning

Center where Sierra and Brandon played, there was only a chain-link fence

that separated the children from traffic whisking by on Santa Ana Avenue.

The state’s health and safety code calls for a fence at least 4 feet high

to shield children on day-care center playgrounds.

“Having just chain-link fences isn’t going to cut it,” Wiener said.

“There needs to be more protection for kids if there is an accident. It

could happen to any child. I don’t want to see it happen again.”

For Wiener and her family, the move to Costa Mesa earlier this year

was supposed to be for the better. They wanted to escape the terror they

experienced while living in the San Fernando Valley. Wiener was robbed at

gunpoint in 1996 and a year later Brandon was escorted by police officers

from his day-care center as two men clad in bullet-resistant armor

riddled cars and homes with bullets three blocks away.

The family was enamored with Orange County, especially CostaMesa,

which didn’t seem to be laden with violent crime.

But in May as she was signing Brandon out of his class at Southcoast,

the car came careening through the yard and Brandon was seriously

injured. He was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Martha Hernandez, whose son was a classmate of Brandon’s and was on

the playground that day, said Wiener has been an inspiration to other

parents.

“She has been remarkably strong throughout this,” she said. “It’s

incredible how she has dealt with it.”

Hernandez, like Wiener, didn’t know much about nonprofit organizations

prior to the tragedy. But that hasn’t stopped Hernandez, who is taking a

Cal State Fullerton extension course in Garden Grove that helps students

such as herself to establish a foundation.

“We are still going to need help from people who are experienced in

this area,” Hernandez said. “But I’m learning a lot about the framework

needed for this project.”

Cyndi Soto, Sierra’s mother, also has started a foundation called

Sierra’s Light, which aims to educate parents about safety standards

while calling for legislation to protect day-care centers. Unlike Soto,

Wiener visits the school on a regular basis and considers it part of her

healing process.

“There is a connection and a bond there,” she said. “It’s cathartic to

talk with the teachers. They are just as much as victims as the kids

are.”

Wiener said she misses Brandon calling for her. She can’t forget her

baby son but she still has a family to raise. She has two other children,

the youngest a 2-year-old daughter, who has taken over her brother’s

household chores.

Brandon’s birthday is Oct. 24.

“He’s always there for me ... I carry his pictures everywhere,” she

said. “It’s devastating but he would want me to go on and do positive

things.”