'Grabbing,' 'screaming,' 'disparaging': Fayetteville private school faces 19 violations
A Fayetteville private school and daycare is operating under a provisional license after a state regulatory board substantiated allegations of maltreatment of children as young as infants through 5 years old.
More than a dozen complaints lodged against Guy’s Schools Inc., at 985 S. McPherson Church Road, were investigated by the state’s Division of Child Development and Early Education Regulatory Services, which found multiple violations.
Neill and Jennifer Guy are the school's current administrators, according to records with the state's Division of Child Development and Early Education.
Among the violations noted by state overseers were allegations of employees yelling at and mistreating children and not properly reporting one child’s injury, later diagnosed as a broken collarbone.
Attempts to reach representatives of the school by phone, email and social media were unsuccessful as of Friday.
Complaints and violations
Attempts to contact the NC Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the Division of Child Development and Early Education were unsuccessful.
According to the regulatory office's summary reports, the more egregious violations were lodged against the school last year in November and December.
“There was a substantiation of child maltreatment,” a Nov. 3 summary stated. “Pursuant to its investigation, the Division has confirmed sufficient information to determine child maltreatment.”
During a Dec. 14, 2022, site visit, the school was cited for not completing an incident report after a 1-year-old child who was crying and appearing injured was later diagnosed with a broken collar bone.
The report does not state the date of the incident or what caused the broken bone.
Among the 18 other violations were complaints of staff and child ratios being incompliant between Sept. 16 and Oct. 25, 2022; inadequate supervision; and four staff members failing to care for children, ranging in age from infant to 5 years old, “in a nurturing or appropriate manner.”
“Staff members spoke inappropriately to children and about children and their families in the presence of children, antagonized/mocked children who were crying, used profanity around and towards children, called children names, screamed at children, and, overall, treated children in a disparaging manner,” the report stated.
The center's staff is also accused of handling children roughly “by grabbing children by their arms and legs, carrying and lifting them by their limbs, and popping them on the forehead with their fingers.”
The complaint goes on to allege that staff refused to feed infants and toddlers when they were hungry, mocked or ignored cries and used corporal punishment on multiple occasions between Sept. 16, 2022, and Oct. 25, 2022.
While a state representative noted a proper diaper changing during an August 2022 site visit, the complaint states that between Sept. 16, 2022, and Oct. 25, 2022, “staff members stated that they would not change a child's clothing, ages infant to 1 years old, when the child had a toileting incident or had gotten wet.”
In one instance, according to the report, discipline was delegated to another child, and workers told children they would allow another child to "beat them up" if they didn't follow commands They also reportedly directed children to verbally discipline other children.
Another discipline technique, the complaint stated, was a staff member restraining a 4-year-old child in a crib and highchair.
According to the complaint, one worker allowed a child to injure another on Sept. 16, 2022, and on Oct. 14, 2022, the same staff member allowed an infant to put something in their mouth that they originally told the child not to eat.
The state found that discipline, which included placing infants and 1-year-old children in time-out, was not appropriate for the children’s ages and development.
Administrative action
In a Sept. 7 letter, school administrators were notified that the Division of Child Development Early Education would take administrative action against the school, which resulted in issuing a special provisional license for the facility from Sept. 7 through March 7.
The state’s Division of Child Development and Early Education notes there have been site visits since the violations were issued last year and an Oct. 3 site visit report outlines administrative action the school must take.
Reports do not indicate if any employees have been terminated as a result of the findings.
According to the report, the school is required to follow state laws regarding
• Care and treatment of children.
• Staff/child ratios.
• Discipline.
• Supervision.
• Staff/child interactions.
According to the report, Guy's School administrators are in the process of working with parents and staff to coordinate a training date to review the state’s rules.
The school is also required to coordinate with the Partnership for Children of Cumberland County to arrange training for all staff members “that will address positive guidance, adequate supervision, and discipline of children.”
After the training, the school’s administrator is required to revise the school’s discipline policies and procedures, which “should describe, in detail, the steps the facility will take to ensure appropriate treatment of children at all times.”
Among topics the policies and procedures should address are:
• Acceptable and unacceptable techniques used to handle children to prevent injuries.
• Age-appropriate behavior management and discipline techniques for children.
• Procedures for the facility’s administration to respond to all reports of inappropriate discipline, care, or treatment of children.
• Consequences for staff members who fail to comply with the facility’s policies and/or requirements.
The plan must be submitted to the state's child development and early education regulatory services section and should be provided to parents within two weeks after state approval.
The school is further required to develop policies and procedures that describe steps the facility will take to ensure adequate supervision of children, and the school is required to schedule a staff meeting for review of the policies while documenting each participant in attendance and keeping minutes from that meeting.
After that meeting, the school’s administrator is required to develop a plan for the observation and evaluation of each staff member’s performance, which should include routine observations at least once a month.
The plan should also include steps for action when there are complaints regarding staff and when children are injured.
Mother speaks out
The Fayetteville Observer spoke to the mother who lodged the September and October complaints about the school concerning the handling of her two children.
The mother asked to be identified as Sarah P. to protect the identities of her children.
She said she attended the school as a child and had no issues under its previous administrators, Samuel and Jean Guy, but when she enrolled her children, she started to notice things had changed.
After her infant son would become distraught when she made bottles and she saw behavior changes in both children including her toddler daughter crying when being picked up from school, she suspected something at the school was causing the behaviors.
Recordings
Sarah said that because she felt uneasy, she taped an audio recorder to the bottom of her son’s car seat and captured recordings on two days in September 2022 and three days in October 2022.
“It was so much worse than I thought it was,” she said. Some of the recordings were so upsetting, she said, that she had to stop listening.
In transcripts of the recordings that Sarah noted, and which she submitted to state regulators along with her complaint, she noted:
— A Sept. 14 incident a teacher allegedly screamed at her daughter for not paying attention and growled and scolded another child. A teacher was also reportedly heard making fun of a baby for crying and refusing to give the baby a bottle and noises were heard that Sarah described as children being slapped.
• One recording reportedly captured a teacher refusing to open her then-3-year-old daughter’s snacks. • In another recording, teachers could reportedly be heard telling a baby to shut up and mocking the cries of a baby multiple times. In another instance, a teacher seemed to tell a child that she would “knock” him out.
• In an Oct. 18 recording, a teacher allegedly refused to change Sarah's son’s diaper and outfit after he vomited. • In an Oct. 25 recording, teachers allegedly used profane language and told Sarah's infant son to shut up and refused to feed him because he couldn't hold a bottle on his own. The teacher later allegedly told her son to "stop" and then a slapping sound was heard and her son began "wailing."
• In another instance, a teacher allegedly threatened to beat a child and the sound of a slap was followed by a baby crying.
Sarah said hearing the recordings made her feel sick.
“I already felt guilty about working and leaving my kids somewhere,” she said tearfully Friday. “It’s like a nightmare to find out the place where I took them, treated them so badly... I’m upset with myself for not recognizing what was going on earlier.”
She alleged that when she approached school administrators about the recordings and her complaints, they were more concerned about her use of a recording device.
She claims she also filed a report with the Fayetteville Police Department, but no charges were pursued; and she filed a complaint with the state’s Division of Child Development and Early Education.
The state’s investigation took months to complete and was finalized this September, nearly a year after she filed the report.
Civil suit
On Oct. 17, Sarah P. filed a lawsuit in Cumberland County against Guy's Schools Inc and two of its teachers
The suit alleges that her children were “subject to abuse, neglect and maltreatment by defendant” and claims the school was negligent in its hiring practices and supervision of its staff and that the named teachers were negligent and assaultive.
“At no time did school officials contact police or any other government authority or agency to report wrongdoing of its employees,” the suit alleges.
According to the suit, Sarah P. is seeking to recover present and future medical expenses for her children, in excess of $25,000, for the care they received as a result of their treatment at the school.
As a result of her children's treatment at the school, Sarah said, her daughter still has food insecurities from not being allowed to eat and is scared to use the bathroom because of being yelled at for taking too long.
Sarah said she believes the school should be closed.
“Being nurturing is an innate quality and not something you can train,” she said.
Staff writer Rachael Riley can be reached rriley@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3528.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: NC: Private Guy's Schools in Fayetteville mistreated children
