Print edition: 
A sentencing hearing Wednesday was the first time that parents heard from the former day care owner who drove while drunk with seven 3-year-olds in a van.
Margaret Self, 49, of Derby, was sentenced in municipal court to six months in jail and one year of probation for her second DUI conviction. The maximum jail sentence for a second-offense DUI conviction is one year.
"There's a lot I want to say to you," a tearful Self said while facing parents, who were holding back sobs. "'I'm sorry' will never be enough."
Her probation terms include writing apologies to the families of all the children who were in the van when she was arrested Oct. 23.
Several parents said that Self's apology — and sentence — were not enough.
"It's not enough because it's children's lives," said Kim Smith. Self drove her son to school the morning of her arrest.
A few hours after Self drove children to school, day care employees called 911 because they suspected Self was drunk when she drove off to take toddlers on a field trip.
Self was arrested when she returned to the west Wichita day care center she owned, Creative Connections Learning Center, with a blood alcohol content of 0.118, police said.
The day care closed immediately, leaving 12 employees without a job.
But employees and parents said the most valuable thing Self took away from them that day was trust — in Self and the day care industry.
The employee who called 911 to report Self, Lindsey White, said she probably won't consider another job in a day care.
"This scared me," she said. "I don't want to be around it."
Four parents spoke at the sentencing, including Tracy Stuever, who left her three children in Self's care for 4 1/2 years. She said Self would sometimes take care of her children in Stuever's home.
She said Self is now a stranger.
"How do I explain to an 8-year-old, 5-year-old and 3-year-old why this person is no longer in their lives?" Stuever said in her address to Judge Ted Griffith.
Self started an alcohol-abuse treatment program three days after the arrest, and she has completed it, said her attorney, Danny Saville. She attends at least five Alcoholics Anonymous meetings a week, he said.
Griffith ordered Self to continue attending AA meetings and be subject to random drug and alcohol tests as part of her one-year probation, which begins after her six-month jail sentence.
She also has to pay $1,660 in fines for her convictions, which, in addition to the DUI, include driving with a suspended license and not having a child under age 4 in a proper child restraint.
This was Self's second DUI conviction. She was on probation for a February 2009 DUI in Butler County when she was arrested in October.
Griffith said Self not only violated the trust of parents and her employees, but also the entire community.
"Over the past 25 years of working with alcohol-impaired drivers, this is one of the most extreme cases I've seen," he said to Self. "You were in a position of trust... people paid for you watching their most precious (possessions)."
