Shocking report exposes neglect & abuse at Head Start schools

One teacher bit a child. One smacked a kid with a belt. Another wielded a vacuum cleaner to frighten tots. Two others put a child's training diapers over his clothes "to humiliate him."

Staff at the city's Head Start programs for 3- and 4-year-olds have abused and neglected kids, and 189 sites are unsafe — many riddled with rats, roaches, mold and other dangerous conditions, says a scathing audit obtained by The Post.

The alarming problems are laid out in a Jan. 20 report — not released to the public — by the federal Administration for Children and Families, which funds the city to pay community organizations that run Head Start programs. Many of these community groups also run city-funded pre-K programs. The city's Administration for Children's Services is responsible for overseeing Head Start programs, but has failed to take steps to prevent such horrors, the feds found.

"It made me sick to my stomach," said Mona Davids, president of the NYC Parents Union. The report confirmed her fears that Mayor de Blasio's rush to expand pre-K is risky. "He needs to fix this, because it's putting the health and safety of our children in danger."

The audit says the city did not properly follow up on 17 reports of serious child mistreatment, including:

A teacher for the Abyssinian Development Corp., a Harlem group which also runs city Pre-K, led by the Rev. Calvin Butts, repeatedly instructed 3-year-olds to hit and kick each other. She was fired.
A teacher used a belt to hit a 3-year-old at the Blanche Community Progress Day Care Center in Far Rockaway in January 2014. The teacher was removed for two weeks.
A teacher bit a child at the Sharon Baptist Board of Directors in the Bronx last September, parents complained. The prior February, a teacher left bruises on four kids. A child was left in a wet diaper all day, developing a severe rash, and a vacuum cleaner "was used to scare children."
A teacher at the East Harlem Council put a boy in a chair away from other kids "because he was not listening." When he moved, the teacher grabbed his arm, took him into the bathroom and held the door shut, warning the child that if he kept crying he would have to go back there.
A teacher at Lutheran Social Services of Metropolitan New York, on the Upper West Side, struck a child's bottom with her fist to wake him from a nap, shoved a 4-year-old to the ground, and shook another child. She resigned.
Two teachers for the YWCA of New York put toilet-training pants over a 4-year-old boy's clothes to shame him. Both were fired.

Reports of unattended children surfaced. At the Abyssinian Head Start on Lenox Avenue, a child was left alone in a neighborhood park for 15 to 20 minutes last June. Staff from another day-care center found the child. Two teachers were suspended.

The audit also found serious safety hazards: rat poison and bleach in reach of kids, protruding nails, strangulation dangers, electric appliances near sinks used by kids, and gaps in rooftop playground fencing.

At Episcopal Morningside Center in The Bronx, rodent feces littered kitchen counters, tables where kids ate, dolls, books, and nap cots. At the Children's Aid Society site at PS 152 in Washington Heights — which also runs Pre-K — inspectors reported a "rodent nest" inside a classroom wall, and a hole big enough for a child's hand to fit in.

Spokesman Anthony Ramos disputed the report, saying the hole was an access to a radiator valve, and the "nest" was steel wool meant to keep rats out. Federal inspectors found 26 centers with expired licenses, one employee without a criminal-records check, and 18 hired in the prior 12 months who started before their criminal checks were done.

In a statement, the ACS said none of the problems required a program's closure. "All the issues cited in the report were either addressed immediately, or we are enforcing a corrective action plan to resolve them," the ACS said.

Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang

Shocking report exposes neglect & abuse at Head Start schools

Dengan url

http://makananrasaenak.blogspot.com/2015/03/shocking-report-exposes-neglect-abuse.html

Makanan Enak