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 ET ALS MEETINf iS Student Senate will meet today at 5:30 p.ra. tn EMU Century Room E For more information, call 346-0610 Incidental Fee Committee will meet today at 5 p in in the F.MU Hoard Room For more information, call 346 3749. Order of Omega will meet tonight at 6 in Room 248 PLC. For more information, call 342-6590. 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