When Maine daycares stay quiet about abuse and neglect within their walls

On April 2, a teacher at a Brewer child care center picked up a young boy who had crawled away, swung him until his feet were about three feet off the ground and slammed his bottom onto the floor so hard he bounced, according to video footage.

A speech therapist working at the daycare described the 3-year-old’s scream as “blood curdling,” and would later tell police the child cried and said he was hurt for another five to 10 minutes.

The daycare, Elevate Child Care Center, did not tell the boy’s parents what had happened despite state regulations requiring licensed providers to immediately inform parents or guardians of any serious injury or incident involving their child.

It wasn’t until May 6, more than a month later, that the boy’s mother, Kristen Boucher of Brewer, received a phone call from the Maine Department of Health and Human Services alerting her that it had been investigating her son’s teacher, Blake Sullivan of Carmel, for abuse. The call would become part of a chain of events that led to the large daycare’s closure last month.

https://themainemonitor.org/daycares-stay-quiet-about-abuse-neglect/