Six head start employees in Pickaway County have been criminally charged for abuse and failing to report abuse involving their students.
Documents exclusively obtained by the Guardian outline horrid allegations against current and former employees. The crux of the criminal cases focus around a teacher at PICCA, Pickaway Community Action who has since been fired.
Erica Rock, 39, Ashville, is facing one count of child endangerment after fellow employees came forward to police and said that she was physically abusing children at the pre-school where she worked. Five of her co-workers have been charged with failing to report the allegations of abuse, as well.
Circleville Police Detective Jon Farley wrote in his report the disturbing allegations.
“….Erica worked with several non-verbal developmentally disabled children….Erica [would] “tap” them on the face with her hand….what I perceived….was inappropriate physical contact with children,” Farley wrote in an affidavit filed with the Circleville Municipal Court. “….Erica pick[ed] several different students up and [threw] them into a bean bag chair, [picked] students up by the arms, and hit a student on top of the head with a clip board….”
The abuse had reportedly been ongoing for several months.
In numerous instances, fellow employees told Farley that they had taken their concerns of Rock’s alleged abuse to their supervisors, who would do nothing. In one case, Farley outlines how employees felt intimidated by their superiors and were told, “it’s not your job to make those decisions.”
Five of Rock’s supervisors and administrators have been charged with failing to report her abuse to police or child protective services once they were told by her co-workers that it was taking place. State law mandates that if an educational provider or employee of an educational institution suspects any type of abuse that they are required to report it to authorities.
The employees who reported the crimes to authorities were not charged.
Donna Solovey was the director of head start for 25 years. She is facing a first degree count of failing to report child abuse. Solovey retired earlier this month after she was criminally charged, however, she remains on the organization’s payroll as a consultant.
Claudina “Dina” Thompson, a building coordinator at the Corwin Street location faces the same charge. She has only been employed since December 2019.
Hilda Winner, also a center coordinator, left in the fall of 2019. She faces up-to six months in jail for her alleged role of failing to report the physical abuse.
Debbie Hoffman, an early childhood director, faces the same criminal count.
Kim Oliver, the current head nurse of the program’s Corwin Street location, was also charged with a first degree misdemeanor.
Rock posted on social media about the allegations, denying any wrong doing.
“I am hard on all my students because I know that they are all capable of so much more,” she wrote. “However, I never have and never would physically harm a child.”
A call to PICCA seeking comment for this story was not returned.
UPDATE: 5:15 PM: PICCA released the following statement after the Guardian broke this story:
“Three employees were placed on administrative duties on Monday, July 20, 2020 pursuant to charges filed in the Circleville Municipal Court regarding failure to report child abuse alleged to have occurred in December 2019. Those charges were dismissed by the Municipal Court on July 23, 2020. The employees will remain on administrative duties pending a determination as to whether those charges will be refiled at a later date.
At the time of the alleged event, PICCA Head Start program had a shared classroom at their Corwin Center location with Pickaway County Educational Service Center. The charges of failure to report were related to actions of an ESC employee who was in the shared Head Start classroom serving preschool children. The fundamental priority of Head Start is the well-being of the children in the program. PICCA welcomes a full and fair vetting of the details of these allegations but will refrain from further public comment while the legal matter is pending.”
If your child attended PICCA Head Start and you suspect they have been victim of child abuse, contact the Circleville Police Department at (740) 474-8888. If you suspect child abuse, contact the national domestic violence hotline at 800-799-7233.
