Missouri mom waiting for justice after toddler with autism hit by child care employee | Opinion
A mother of a toddler with autism says justice has been extremely difficult to come by since a day care worker hit her son on the head three times with a plastic bucket. More than six months have passed since a former employee of the Richmond Early Learning Center struck the 2-year-old child of Jessica Mack.
The early learning center is operated by the nonprofit Missouri Valley Community Action Agency in Ray County.
After the Jan. 30 incident, the female employee in question left the agency, according to Susan Huffmon, director of Missouri Valley Community Action Agency’s Head Start program. Mack said Huffmon and the employee’s supervisor told her in person that the woman intentionally struck the child and was fired.
To be sure, there seem to be several people and institutions to question in this case. However, it is troubling that there has been no prosecutorial action by Ray County Prosecuting Attorney Camille Johnston. The six-month-old case isn’t closed, I was told, but Mack and her family said they have been left hanging.
“All I want is justice,” she said.
The employee was arrested Feb. 19 on a single count of child abuse, according to the Ray County Sheriff’s Office. She was released the next day without charges being filed.
As of Thursday, the employee still hasn’t been charged with a crime. Because of this, I won’t name her in this column. When reached for comment, she denied any wrongdoing.
Mack’s child is a minor, so I will not name him either. He was observed at a local hospital about two weeks after the incident, according to a medical report provided by the family. Doctors concluded during the child’s Feb. 13 visit there were no obvious injuries. Doctors told Mack to monitor the boy for signs of concussion.
But she believes the delay in reporting the incident might have impacted any symptoms. She told me she would have liked to have known about the alleged abuse the same day it occurred.
“I wasn’t able to get him properly screened,” Mack said.
Although Johnston didn’t provide an update on the case, in a recent statement sent to me, she wrote: “This continues to be an active investigation and it is anticipated the Ray County Sheriff’s Department will present the case for prosecution. The Ray County Prosecuting Attorney will comment at the conclusion of these efforts.”
There could be movement soon, according to an email sent to Mack from Joslynn Marco, victim advocate of Ray and Carroll counties. On July 8, Marco wrote: “I am being told the subpoenas have been signed.”
But Mack, 30, said she’s heard the same thing for months. She said she’s been strung along at every step in this legal process since February. And the delay is unimaginable.
Mother not informed for more than a week
The incident occurred the morning of Jan. 30 at the Richmond Learning Center, according to an incident report. Day care officials didn’t inform Mack until Feb. 7. The next day, child welfare officials were notified, according to a letter sent to Mack from the Missouri Department of Social Services’ Children’s Division.
The timeline seems to show disparities among what Mack was told, what child care officials say, and what other documents show. Evidence that the child was injured was inconclusive, the agency concluded. Why? Perhaps the delay in reporting hindered the state’s inquiry.
In Missouri, child care center workers are mandated reporters, meaning they are legally required to report suspicion or proof of abuse of a child or at-risk adult. Not only should Mack have been notified immediately of the incident, but so should the Children’s Division. Under state child welfare laws, not reporting of possible child abuse is a crime. Johnston must consider holding other day care workers criminally responsible as well.
Video footage of the incident was captured on the Richmond Early Learning Center’s surveillance system, Mack said she was told by day care officials. But the system automatically deletes footage after seven days, she was told.
If true, I find it rather ironic that Mack was informed about her child being struck after the footage was no longer available. Because of this omission, the Children’s Division was not able to substantiate the alleged abuse, Mack claims.
Because of privacy issues and state law, Department of Social Services spokeswoman Baylee Watts declined to comment on the case.
“Information related to specific child abuse and neglect investigations is closed and confidential,” Watts wrote in an email.
Here’s a thought: Officials at the Richmond Early Learning Center should update their policy regarding video footage. In the future, the center must preserve at all costs any evidence associated with alleged child abuse. And employees should not wait a week before reporting possible abuse.
Isabella Davis, the fired employee’s direct supervisor, filed the incident report on Feb. 7. It describes what Davis said she witnessed on surveillance video: She saw the former employee strike the child on the head with a plastic toy bucket three times.
“I then let the supervisors know about the incident and what I saw on cameras,” Davis wrote.
Since the incident, Mack said she has gotten nothing but the runaround.
“The detective at the sheriff’s office just says he has been waiting for the prosecutor to sign subpoenas for months and he says he is just waiting on her,” Mack said. “The sheriff’s office says one thing the prosecutor says another.”
Why delay by Ray County prosecutor?
Just over a month ago, Johnston sent me a statement about the criminal proceedings. She blamed the delay on a temporary change in leadership in the Ray County Sheriff’s Office, the lead agency investigating the case.
The written correspondence failed to adequately explain the holdup. There are incident and police reports at the prosecuting attorney’s disposal, as well as written statements from witnesses. The alleged abuser no longer works at the center. Johnston should do what’s needed to prosecute this case.
“Because the juvenile case involves a child victim, the Ray County Prosecuting Attorney cannot comment directly on the allegations,” Johnston wrote to me. “The Ray County Prosecuting Attorney received reports regarding an alleged crime(s) under the previous Ray County Sheriff Department’s administration. That administration met with the Prosecuting Attorney and an investigative plan was created and agreed to complete the file. Since that time the Ray County Sheriff’s Department has continued to investigate the matter and had meetings with the Prosecuting Attorney to update the progress.”
In an email to Marco, the victim advocate, Mack asked if the investigation into suspended Ray County Sheriff Scott Childers’ inmate work program would affect her son’s case.
“Not at all,” Marco replied.
But this flies in the face of what Johnston wrote in her statement claiming the change in administration at the sheriff’s office caused some of the delays in this case. Mack and her small child deserve better.
I also asked an attorney representing Johnston in a federal defamation lawsuit she filed against Jefferson City private investigator James Murray for an update in this abuse case. But as of this week, I hadn’t heard back.
In a column I wrote in June, Murray accused Johnston of aiding and abetting a former lover to elude law enforcement officials investigating that man for sex-related crimes, among other transgressions. In legal documents filed in the defamation lawsuit, Johnston denied any wrongdoing.
There’s a lot going on in Ray County offices: the change in administration in the sheriff’s office, the accusation of Johnston by the private investigator and in return her defamation suit against him. I have asked for more transparency in all respects.
Claim: Ex-employee struck child ‘playfully’
Speaking on not being forthcoming, Huffmon, Richmond’s Head Start director, has some explaining to do as well.
In a statement, Huffmon claimed that Mack and the Children’s Division were notified immediately about the alleged abuse. But it took a week before Mack was made aware of the issue. Davis, the former employee’s supervisor, knew about the incident days before telling Mack and she reviewed surveillance footage, according to the report she filed.
“As soon as management was informed of the incident, the Children’s Division and mom were contacted immediately,” Huffmon wrote. “The child was not assaulted or injured in any way. The teacher was playing with the child and the child laughed and played around during the so-called incident. It was investigated by the Children’s Division and the incident was unsubstantiated. The staff person involved no longer works for our company.”
When reached, the former employee backed up the statement: “I was playing around with the kid and bumped him on the head. He was laughing.”
Mack countered the claim that the child was struck playfully, and said Huffmon and Davis initially did not describe the interaction in that way.
Huffmon added, “It should be noted that the child is still attending our program.” Mack said that because of the family’s financial situation, the Richmond Early Learning Center is the only day care option she can afford. She had no other choice but to send him back there. The Missouri Valley Community Action Agency provides help to cover child care costs for low-income families.
“There was not much I could do when it wasn’t reported immediately,” Mack said. “My family and son have suffered enough and Susan (Huffmon) … was there when I was told and it definitely wasn’t playful hitting. Why else would they fire the woman?”
That is a question Johnston, the highest paid public official in Ray County, must answer.
