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Liberty day care will not face criminal charges for allegations of improper discipline of child
By SARAH LEHR
liberty
ABC Day Care and Learning Center at 227 W. Liberty Street will not face criminal charges after reportedly holding a 3-year-old down and throwing water on her face while she cried.
“It doesn’t meet statutory requirements for a crime,” Trumbull County Prosecutor Diane Barber said. “We can’t prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime happened.”
The Liberty Police Department investigated the incident. “It’s not really appropriate to throw water onto a child’s face, but it’s not really a criminal matter,” Capt. Toby Meloro said.
A police report indicates that the incident occurred June 29 and was reported July 10 after audio, recorded by a former day care employee, surfaced. In the audio recording, a child cries while a woman says, “I’m not going to let you go until you stop crying.”
The woman repeatedly says “Do you want it again?” and asks: “Do you want water again?” The woman also uses the phrase “shock therapy.”
The recording features two adult female voices, which police say belong to day care owner Janet Ambrosia-Rice and her daughter.
Ambrosia-Rice said she used a damp cloth to wipe the child’s face and denied that any day care employees held the child down.
The child lives in Girard with her aunt and uncle, who also are her guardians.
“I think everyone in this area needs to be more educated on day care centers,” the child’s aunt said. “My faith in the system is not high right now. It’s a terrible thing to trust someone with your child and then have something like this happen.”
James Gentile, an attorney representing the day care, said the day care had been cleared of charges after a thorough investigation. “They’ve been in business 37 years and run a great service to the community,” Gentile said.
Inspection records from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services dating back to 2013 indicate that the department found the day care with multiple issues.
During a July 17 inspection, the ODJFS determined that the center was out of compliance with various requirements, three of which were deemed a “serious risk.”
First, the ODJFS determined that the center presented a “serious risk” when it used unacceptable disciplinary techniques in its preschool classroom involving “yelling, screaming and shaking” a child and using “water inappropriately to discipline a child.” Additionally, the ODJFS noted that, at times, the day care had a ratio of one staff member per 26 children, which violated the state’s required ratio of at least one staff member per 16 children of that age group.
Third, the center found that the day care failed to request a criminal records background check for one of its employees.
The day care has until Sept. 11 to submit “compliance responses” to the ODJFS for each of these three issues. The response must include written confirmation indicating that the day care is now in compliance and that it will comply in the future.
“If there have been technical noncompliance issues, I’m sure they will address them,” Gentile said.
Records indicate that the ODJFS found the center to be similarly out of compliance with proper staff-child ratios in May this year and October 2014, and for background checks in May this year, October 2014 and November 2013.
ABC Day Care received a nonexpiring child-care license in 1996, according to the ODJFS website.