What to Know
When parents drop their kids off at daycare, they trust that the people responsible for the health and care of their kids will protect them. At SUNY Cortland Childcare Center in New York, that trust was allegedly broken — repeatedly, and by multiple employees at once.
Four staff members are now facing criminal charges after an investigation into abuse claims made against the center. Court documents obtained by Syracuse.com detail a pattern of alleged mistreatment of young kids, including a 2-year-old with a known injury.
Police arrested four employees.
According to court documents obtained by Syracuse.com, an investigation into abuse claims at SUNY Cortland Childcare Center led to the arrest of Aimee Wyatt, Kelsi Carlisle, Heather Hurteau, and Karen Diescher. Each of the women worked in a different capacity at the site and was allegedly complicit in the abuse. Wyatt, 50, allegedly grabbed the arm of a child with a known injury. Court documents also claim she kicked the child on a separate occasion when an employee tried to stop her from pulling on the child. Diescher, the center’s director, reportedly noted the incident in Wyatt’s employee journal but did not contact the parent.
What investigators say happened.
In a separate incident, Wyatt allegedly told children to “do whatever you have to do,” encouraging them to beat up a 3-year-old child. The attack apparently went on for several minutes before another adult stepped in. Court documents state that 29-year-old Carlisle, 29, restrained a student even though they told her it hurt.
In a separate incident, she allegedly told a child to “poop his pants if he had to,” while restricting bathroom access. Neither Diescher nor Hurteau reportedly did anything to stop the alleged abuse.
The charges.
Center Director Deischer, 50, faces three counts of endangering the welfare of a child. Hurteau, 57, who worked as the head teacher, faces two counts of endangering the welfare of a child. Carlisle, center supervisor, was charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
Wyatt faces the most charges. Prosecutors charged her with four counts of endangering the welfare of a child and one count of fifth-degree criminal solicitation.
Parents want justice.
The Cortland Standard reported Eric Edlund and Jessica Carrick-Hagenbarth filed suit on behalf of their daughter, identified as M.E. in court documents. That family wants “economic damages for personal injuries, conscious pain and suffering, and loss of services by reason of the wrongful, unlawful, reckless, negligent, grossly negligent and careless acts of the defendant State of New York, its employees, agents and servants,” per the suit.
The suit claims the child “has suffered and will continue to suffer personal physical and psychological injuries.”
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