Roswell daycare where 2 teachers were arrested appeals state’s decision to revoke license
A Roswell daycare is appealing a decision by the state to revoke its license and shut down the facility.
Channel 2′s Steve Gehlbach was in East Roswell at the Parker-Chase preschool, where two staff members were arrested in 2022 and an investigation found more instances of possible abuse.
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On Thursday, Gehlbach learned the state moved to revoke the license to operate the school, but the school has 30 days to appeal the decision. In the meantime, the daycare can stay open.
Back in June of 2022, a parent happened to be watching the live camera in her son’s classroom when a teacher, Zeina Alostwani, seemed to step on one child’s fingers as the 3-year-old sat in a circle.
Then, the mother saw Alostwani knee a girl in the back in real time. A second teacher, 19-year-old Soriana Briceno, then got into the child’s face and then a minute later, pushed her index finger into the girl’s forehead.
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The parents rushed to the school and demanded they be removed, which days later led to Alostwani and Briceno’s arrests on child cruelty charges.
“It doesn’t matter whose child it is, it’s a child,” the parent said at the time. “They’re helpless.”
Both suspects are still awaiting trial, but prosecutors said there’s not a much larger investigation.
“Several other children have come forward as additional victims in this case,” Roswell police said.
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Roswell police and the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL) went back and reviewed hundreds of hours of video recorded from the daycare.
In their notice of revocation, DECAL states a “non-correctable abuse, dereliction or deficiency exists” and that a review of classroom footage over the summer revealed 24 instances of staff administering inappropriate discipline.
The state and the school both would not comment on the ongoing appeal, but in a required letter sent to notify parents last month, the school leaders said:
“There have been no such incidents in the succeeding six months during which we have provided a safe environment for our children. We strongly disagree with the decision and will file an appeal.”
A hearing in front of a state administrative law judge has not yet been set and the daycare can stay open throughout the process.
Gehlbach also check with Roswell police, who said their preliminary investigation is done and turned the case over to the district attorney.
Their review of the video is done and they flagged instances of potentially concerning behavior, but detectives are now going back for a secondary look at each incident, so the investigation is still active.