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On September 29, 2025, The Office of Childhood (OOC) received an allegation of Child A (unknown age) was being drug across the playground by a teacher by the child's arm. On September 29, 2025, Compliance Inspector (CI) Christy Hughes conducted an unannounced inspection of the facility and found the allegations to be substantiated based on the following information.
5 CSR 25-500.182(1)(C)2. which states: "Expectations for a child's behavior shall be appropriate for the developmental level of that child."
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5 CSR 25-500.182(1)(C)8. which states: "No discipline technique which is humiliating, threatening, or frightening to children shall be used. Children shall not be shamed, ridiculed, or spoken to harshly, abusively, or with profanity."
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5 CSR 25-500.182(1)(C)3. which states: "Only constructive, age-appropriate methods of discipline shall be used to help children develop self-control and assume responsibility for their own actions."
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5 CSR 25-500.182(1)(C)7 which states: "Physical punishment including, but not limited to, spanking, slapping, shaking, biting, or pulling hair shall be prohibited."
On September 29, 2025, CI Hughes observed video footage from September 26, 2025, at 4:49 pm. The video is 51 seconds in length. The children are playing on the playground. Child A (3-years-old), and Isabella are at the back of the playground. At 14 seconds you can hear Isabella tell Child A that they are going to go sit down. She comes from the back of the play structure with Child A by the left wrist. Child A grabs for the teeter totter and she aggressively pulls him off. At the 20 second mark Child A drops to the ground and Isabella continues to drag him with his feet dragging behind him. Child A is yelling to let him go. He was drug for 10 seconds. He is then placed on the ground and when he gets up to run away Isabella grabs him again by the wrist and pulls him back. She lets go and tells him to sit right there. Mabhari comes over and picks Child A up under the arms to sit with her.
CI Hughes also conducted in person interviews with LLC member Justin Coliny, director Chanel Williams and caregivers Isabella Echols, Mabhari Thatiparthi, Alexis Keown and Christa Smith and Child B (4-years-old) and Child C (4-years-old).
Justin stated that he received a call from Chanel about Child A being dragged across the playground by Isabella on Friday September 26, 2025. He reviewed the video footage from the playground. He is the only one who has access to the footage. Isabella was terminated from the facility.
Chanel stated that she was not present when the incident happened. Her assistant Christa Smith contacted her, but she does not have access to the video footage. She contacted Justin about it. She did not have any previous concerns with Isabella.
Isabella stated that Child A was digging in the turf, so she asked him to stop and move to a different area. He refused so she took him by the hand to walk with her. When he refused to walk with her, she drug him across the playground towards the building to sit. As they walked past the teeter totter, he grabbed on to it and she pulled him off. She thinks she had him by the right arm. She was not speaking with him while she was pulling him over toward the building. Child A was not crying. The other teacher on the playground, Mabhari took him from there. Child A needs a lot of redirections. They have a safe place in their classroom for calming down. She knew she was dragging him, and it was wrong. A lady from the building next door came over and asked to speak with her manager. She asked her "Why did you drag that child?" She went inside to get Christa and after Christa spoke with the lady, she sent her back out to be with the children.
Mabhari stated that she was sitting over by the building with other children. She went and took Child A when she saw Isabella dragging him. She did not speak with the lady that came to the fence. She has never seen Iseballa do something like this before. Her child is in her class and really likes Isabella.
Christa stated that Isabella came into the center and told her what had happened. She said she had drug Child A across the playground. Isabella told her there was a lady out there that wanted to speak with her. The lady told her she watched Isabella drag a child across the playground by one arm. She told her they had cameras, and she would review the footage. She went into the building and sent Isabella back out with the children. She did not stay with Isabella out on the playground. She called Chanel to inform her. She does not have access to the video footage. She didn't realize at the time how excessive the situation was. She has not had any previous concerns with Isabella and has never received concerns from parents about Isabella. She has never seen Isabella being physical with the children. Her director advised her to calm the situation down and she would contact the owners. She did view the video footage on Saturday September 27, 2025.
Alexis stated that she has never seen her do anything physical, but Isabella does speak rough to the children sometimes saying, "I'm going to call the cops on you."
Child B and Child C did not provide any relevant information to the investigation.
On November 6, 2025, CI Hughes conducted an interview via phone with Parent A. Parent A stated that she was notified on Saturday September 27, 2025, of the situation from LLC member Justin Coliny. The center did not offer to show her the video, but she did not ask to see it. She has never had any concerns with Isabella; she was her and her child's favorite teacher. She was shocked. Child A still attends the facility, and she feels the center took the appropriate steps to rectify it.
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