Four BWCA employees amid 2022 child abuse concerns facing failure to report charges

Four people who were employed by Blue Water Community Action at the time a former Head Start teacher was suspected of child abuse are now facing misdemeanor charges for allegedly failing to report it.

Charges of failure to report have been filed for Analisa Jex, Stephanie Kesner, Melanie Sheffer, and Katharine Wood. They are expected to be arraigned on July 12.

St. Clair County Prosecutor Michael Wendling said four warrants were issued Tuesday in connection to a weeks-long review from his office and investigations from the state and county sheriff’s department. The later agency originally requested failure to report charges against seven individuals in April, including BWCA Executive Director Melinda Johnson, who remains on unpaid administrative leave.

Late Tuesday afternoon, Wendling said, “We did not deny those charges,” but that they were “holding the other three for future determination.”

Former teacher Cody Williams pleaded guilty to one count of fourth-degree child abuse and two counts of assault and battery on April 24. He was sentenced to six months in jail followed by probation.

“I think it’s important to note that the situation of abuse had been resolved within the agency, but they did not report it to the state,” Wendling said. “… The employee (Williams) had been discharged from Blue Water Community Action that was the perpetrator of that assault, but there’s still a subsequent obligation to report it to the state that they did not do within a reasonable amount of time.”

Sheffer, 53, and Kesner, 55, were a supervisor and education manager, respectively, at the time of Williams’ reported assault incidents at the end of last year, while Jex, 39, was his Head Start teacher’s aide and Wood, 38, a bus aide.

Kesner and Sheffer couldn’t be immediately reached for comment as of midday Wednesday. Jex did not comment when reached. Wood declined to comment.

What was the timeline leading up to charges?

Williams’ original offense date, according to reports, is listed as last December.

Although early police reports show some Blue Water Community Action staff allegedly witnessed or were made aware of the issue, the state was not notified until January.

Wendling said the sheriff’s department’s detective bureau submitted its investigation to his office on April 21 before they requested further interviews over the failure to report allegations. His office also requested statements from a Michigan Department of Health and Human Services investigator.

The sheriff’s content came later in May, and the most recent state report late last week.

It was the last report that Wendling said “made us comfortable going forward with charges on those four individuals.”

As of early May, the sheriff’s department alleged Jex and Wood witnessed Williams assault students, though reportedly differed in being able to identify the children involved. Investigators also alleged Kesner and Sheffer heard from other staff about the issue but had also not reported it or instructed others to do so.

Further information on the latter sheriff’s department investigation was not immediately available as of Wednesday.

What comes next at Blue Water Community Action?

Johnson, who didn’t reply to a request for comment Wednesday, was the subject of criticism among some parents and community members in the wake of Williams’ criminal proceedings this spring.

And amid calls for her employment to be terminated, she was placed on leave at a BWCA Board of Directors meeting in early May.

It was not immediately clear when the board would return to the issue. The board doesn’t meet again until June 27.

Board Chairwoman Linda Lilly also could not be immediately reached this week.

In a recent “standby media statement” that remains on BWCA’s website, however, she said the agency was continuing to cooperate with the sheriff’s department and prosecutor’s office, as well as the state’s child care licensing bureau and Child Protective Services and the federal Head Start office “as they work to conclude their respective investigations.”

“The BWCA Board of Directors will utilize their information when available in the coming days, in concert with our internal reviews, to inform and guide our decisions regarding BWCA leadership and related matters,” Lilly’s statement read. “In the interim, we are working to provide additional training for all staff regarding their roles and obligations including looking for signs of neglect and abuse of children under our care and the duty of all staff members to immediately report any suspected abuse; to update our video monitoring technology and protocols; to provide additional training for our front-line classroom staff in terms of dealing with stressful classroom challenges; and to provide greater support to improve the well-being and moral for all our staff and students.

“We are committed to acting in the best interests of our children and parents and maintaining the trust of our community.”

Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @Jackie20Smith.

This article originally appeared on Port Huron Times Herald: Four BWCA employees amid 2022 child abuse concerns facing failure to report charges