Police responded to the Learn and Grow Early Childhood Center on Friday afternoon after a month-long state investigation found instances of alleged child abuse.

SCRANTON, Pa. — Dozens of parents were asked to come to Learn and Grow Early Childhood Center along St. Ann Street in Scranton to pick up their kids around 2 p.m. on Friday. 

Stephanie Griffin, a parent, says, “I’m shooken up, I don’t really know how I feel right now, I’m nervous to see what will happen, but I’ll stand with them.”

Scranton Police and detectives were called to the daycare center after the State Department of Human Services and Northeast Regional Office of Child Development and Early Learning staff shut down the center after the results of a month-long investigation, according to paperwork given to parents picking up their children at the center. 

The paperwork reveals that the investigation has found the center’s actions constitute gross incompetence, negligence, misconduct in operating the center, or mistreatment or abuse of clients. 

Evidence collected in the investigation shows that in late April, an employee of the center was seen by another staff member and on video slapping and pulling the hair of a child, spanking them, and hitting the child in the head with a bottle multiple times before tossing the child to the floor. 

The employee who witnessed the alleged abuse reported it to the center’s owners, but the owners and two other staff members did not report the incident to ChildLine, which paperwork states they are required to by law. 

Months after the alleged abuse, on September 11th, the center’s owners placed this employee on suspension, but staff interviews show that the employee was still working at the center a week after. 

Other allegations in the paperwork include multiple instances of staff putting more children in the center’s rooms than the legal capacity of those rooms. One instance on September 29th, the staff had 27 children in a room meant for only 16 children. 

Another allegation includes keeping items that could be choking hazards and unlocked cabinets accessible to toddlers. 

Due to these allegations, the state required all parents to pick their children up from the center on Friday afternoon. 

Gilbert Barr, a parent, says, “So now all these parents are displaced with children, we have absolutely nowhere to go with our kids, we all have work. We are all just lost, like we don’t know what to do; it’s hard to find childcare.”