• Violation

  R 400.1913 · R 400.1913 Discipline; child handling. (3) Personnel shall not do any of the following: (a) Hit, spank, shake, bite, pinch, or inflict other forms of corporal punishment. 7

  On June 10, 2021, I received a phone call from Julie Ellison to report that an incident occurred at her child care home that morning involving an altercation with a child care parent and Deputy Joseph Hughes, from the St. Joseph County Sheriff's Department had been contacted and came out to the home. I asked Ms. Ellison to complete an Incident Report (BCA-4605) and submit it to me within 72 hours so I had the details in writing. On June 10, 2021, Ms. Ellison texted me a copy of the Incident Report which stated, that at approximately 8:30 AM, child care staff member, Danielle Misel, was taking a child to the bathroom while Ms. Ellison was finishing up breakfast with the children. Child A (male, age 3) had been throwing food from his highchair and Ms. Ellison had asked him to stop several times. She went to put a stool away and came back to see that Child A was continuing to throw food. She took him by his hand, told him look at her, and sternly said, "stop throwing food." Child C's Father had just walked in to drop off Child C (female, age 16 months) and saw Ms. Ellison discipling Child A, not knowing the circumstances. Ms. Ellison saw Child C's Father walking back to his vehicle with Child C. A few minutes later, Child C's Father called Ms. Ellison on the phone and began cursing at her and said that he saw her yelling at Child A. Ms. Ellison said that Child C's Father was "exaggerating what really happened" instead of questioning her about what he thought he saw. A couple hours later, Deputy Joseph Hughes came to the home and spoke to Ms. Ellison about the incident. He told her that he did not find any wrongdoing. On June 14, 2021, I spoke to Deputy Hughes who said that on June 10, 2021, he received a complaint that Child C's Father arrived to drop off Child C and no one was supervising the children for at least 25 seconds. Child A had dropped some food off his highchair. When Ms. Ellison walked back into the kitchen, she walked over to Child A, got in his face, started yelling at him, and shook him. Deputy Hughes said that he went to the home and spoke to Ms. Ellison who denied putting her hands on Child A and said she would not risk losing her child care license by doing something like that. Deputy Hughes said Child A seemed fine, so he did not contact Child A's Parents about the incident and he did not report it to child protective services. He did not find much in his investigation and would be writing up a report and closing his case. On June 14, 2021, I made an unscheduled inspection to the child care home and spoke to Ms. Ellison, and child care staff members, Laura Misel, and Danielle Misel about the allegation. Ms. Ellison stated that around 8:30 AM, she had twelve children in care and the preschool-aged children were eating breakfast in the kitchen. The air conditioning unit did not feel like it was cooling well so she got out a step ladder to check the filter while they were eating. She went down the hall to put the stool back into the closet and when she returned, Child A was throwing food. 3 She had asked him three or four times earlier during breakfast to stop throwing food. She said she went over to Child A, faced him in the highchair, took him by the wrist or lower arm so he would look at her which he did automatically, and she said in a stern "Dad voice" that "we don't throw food." Then she wiped off his hands before getting him out of the highchair because she assumed if he was playing with his food, he was finished with it. She said he never cried and went and played in the living room after breakfast. She denied yelling at Child A and said she just used a firm voice so he would know she was serious. She also denied grabbing him forcefully and demonstrated how she took his lower arm as she was facing him to get his attention so he would stop and look at her. Ms. Ellison said while this was happening, Danielle Misel had taken another child to the bathroom. When Ms. Ellison looked out the kitchen window, she s

Child A (male, age 3) dropped food off his tray. Ms. Ellison went over to Child A, got in his face, started yelling at him, and shook him.

Disposition: Substantiated