Day-care workers charged
SEA ITUC (AD —
For the first time in
Washington state,
day-care supervisors
have been charged
with failing to report
suspectod child abuse.
Tbe case involves four employees at the
Overtake KinderCare Learning Center, in
suburban Redmond, who go on trial |an
18.
NORTHWEST
A child-care worker, Jodi Lynn Hall, is
charged with fourth-degree assault and
supervisors Susan Schmidt. Kimberly Cor
bel and Patricia Barrett each with failure
to report suspected child abuse. All four
face a maximum penalty of a year in jail
and a $5,000 fine.
Hall, 2fi. is accused of yanking, slapping
and shaking young children. In one
instance, prosecutors said, she tossed a lit
tle boy on his head from the top railing of
a crib.
Prosecutors said Redmond police uncov
ered a pattern of abuse against four chil
dren, aged four months to 14 months, at
the center, which is one of more than 1,200
KindorCare operations nationwide.
Supervisors repeatedly were told of mis
treatment but never tried to stop it and one
worker, Dana Beck, was admonished in
writing tor insunorainanon aner sun com
plained. prosecutors said.
"I felt KinderCare was more concerned
about making money than they were about
the employees and the children." Stacy
O'Neill, who worked at the day rare cen
ter until June 1992. was quoted os saying
Ruth Kwnke told police she visited the
center several times a day to nurse her own
baby and she saw Hall slap an eight
month-old girl fiercely in the mouth after
the little girl hit the worker in the leg while
teething.
Hall then veiled. "That's what you get
I told you not to bite!" kwake said in a
recorded interview. "There was abuse
going on, on a doily basis at some degree
with a child It was not a hit-and-miss sit
uation."
The case is the first prosec ution brought
under a law in the 1980s that added c hild
care workers to a list of professionals who
must report abuse or neglect to police or
Child Protective Services, state officials
said.
lawyers for Garbel argued in court cioc
uments that there is no proof that Hall
caused any injuries.
"Other than amorphous statements relat
ing to rough handling and veiling, 1 can
not determine the 'abuse' which was
with not repo
There wee abuse going
on, on a daily basis at
some degree with a
child/
— Ruth Kwake,
rmther of a child m the Overtake
KmderCare center
allegedly reported." said Todd Maybrown,
representing Corbel.
Nor is there any specific evidenc e of
wrongdoing to support the failure-to-roport
charges, lawyers for all throe supervisors
said
' All allegations are based on hearsay
and second-hand information," said Robert
MrSeveney. who represents Schmidt.
Mall was fired after on internal review
m which the supervisors were cleared of
wrongdoing, said Colleen Hughes-Kraft.
regional manager of KindeK.are. which
operates :tfi centers in the Puget Sound
area
The supervisors have been assigned
tasks without child contact pending trial,
she added.
Hughes-Kraft said the review found cur
rent training policies — st\ weeks of
rting abuses
instructionfor now hires and continuing
monthly classes in child care — were suf
ficient
A company workshop scheduled tiefore
the case amse included a refresher course
on identifying and reporting child abuse,
she said.
"We have always prided ourselves in
our training," she said. "We have to do the
right thing for the child That remains the
focus."
Nationwide. KinderCare has been cited
in relatively few neglect or abuse cases.
Civil and criminal charges have been
brought against two teachers accused of
fondling a total of six youngsters at a
KinderCare center in West Columbia, S.C.
New closing procedures were adopted
at a KinderCare center in New Haven, hid.,
after a three-year-old girl was lin ked alone
inside the center when the staff went home
in February til'll
According to a Miami Herald report in
1990, each prospective KinderCare
employee must l>e screened by two super
visors. who are given a six-page ques
tionnaire with instructions for interview
ing, .1 list of 211 questions and a form to
make telephone reference i hei ks with at
least three former employers
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