Officials confirm abuse at daycare

CELINA - State officials on Thursday confirmed a list of substantiated claims of child abuse at Victorum Learning Center, including children who had been hit in the chest, pulled by the arms and dragged.

A report from an unannounced inspection on June 28 by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services also asserts that a child was made to clean up another child's vomit; children have been sent home with unexplained bruises and injuries; diapers have gone unchanged; staff have yelled and screamed in a child's face and yelled derogatory remarks at children; children have been left unattended and unsupervised; and staff ratios have not been met on multiple occasions on several days.

The report also claims that Victorum Learning Center did not notify parents when their child had been pulled and hit by a staff member, nor did it immediately notify Mercer County Child Protective Services of suspicions that a child had been abused or neglected.

"The program failed to immediately notify their local public children services agency," the report reads. "Staff indicated that another staff member was observed on camera dragging, pulling and hitting a child. A report to CPS was not made."

A copy of the report can be found at https://tinyurl.com/VLCcomplaint.

Messages left with Kimberly Collins, director of communications for Victorum Learning Center, were unreturned by press time.

Another unannounced inspection report from July 21 states that Victorum staff indicated an incident report was not filled out for a child who had handprint-like marks on his leg, along with other issues. The report is available at https://tinyurl.com/VLCcontinued. All reports can be found at childcaresearch.ohio.gov.

The reports are based on staff interviews and video footage observed by inspector Heather Sanchez, who conducted both inspections.

The June 28 report states Mercer County CPS has substantiated that a child care staff member had abused, endangered or neglected a child, and that Victorum Learning Center did not notify Mercer County CPS of suspicions that a child had been abused or neglected.

"Through staff interviews during the inspection, it was determined that a child care staff member had … (employed) cruel, harsh, unusual or extreme techniques - pulling children by arms, hitting a child in the chest (and) dragging a child was observed through video," according to the report.

Several staff also reportedly shared that they had observed other staff yelling and screaming while face to face with a child, while other staff had yelled various derogatory remarks to children.

"During staff interviews, staff indicated that several children were going home injured, (with) staff not knowing how (the) injury occurred," the report continues.

Another allegation says, "Through staff interviews, staff shared that parents (were) not notified of their child being pulled and hit by a staff member."

The reports come in addition to three open investigations by the Mercer County Sheriff's Office into potential child abuse at the child care center.

At least three incident reports show deputies were contacted about possible child abuse at Victorum Learning Center. They remain under investigation.

The reports were dated July 12 and July 21 and obtained through a public records request by The Daily Standard.

The investigations are also compounded by a rash of sudden staff resignations at the center on July 21, leading Victorum Learning Center officials to put families on a "wait list" and disenroll some families.

Collins, the director of communications, had claimed Victorum Learning Center itself was not under investigation and that no families were dropped from the program.

However, several families have claimed that they had been dropped from the program, and that being put on a "wait list" nonetheless meant they were left without childcare on a weekend and had to scramble to find alternative arrangements before the work week began.