A teacher-advocate at the Head Start preschool in Circleville has been charged with child endangering and three other staff members have been placed on administrative duties.
Teachers reported the abuse to Circleville Police detectives after they say preschool administrators did not follow-up on their complaints about a fellow instructor Erica Rock.
Police say a 6-year-old boy’s family came forward concerning bruises on the disabled child’s body. Court documents show Rock allegedly dragged, pushed, hit, and threw the special needs pre-school child.
The preschool did provide a press release as follows:
Three employees were placed on administrative duties on Monday, July 20, 2020 pursuant to charges filed in the Circleville Municipal Court regarding failure to report child abuse alleged to have occurred in December 2019. Those charges were dismissed by the Municipal Court on July 23, 2020.
The employees will remain on administrative duties pending a determination as to whether those charges will be refiled at a later date.
At the time of the alleged event, PICCA Head Start program had a shared classroom at their Corwin Center location with Pickaway County Educational Service Center. The charges of failure to report were related to actions of an ESC employee who was in the shared Head Start classroom serving preschool children. The fundamental priority of Head Start is the well-being of the children in the program.
PICCA welcomes a full and fair vetting of the details of these allegations but will refrain from further public comment while the legal matter is pending.