BLF Holds West Virginia Daycare Accountable For Sexual Abuse

How Child-on-Child Sexual Abuse Happened at a West Virginia Daycare Center

Like all good parents, the ones in this case wanted the best daycare center for their children and selected the West Virginia facility because they believed it would keep their children safe. However, the daycare center clearly failed to deliver on safety promises when another child was able to inappropriately touch and sexually abuse these two children on separate occasions.

To ensure facilities are providing a safe environment for children, West Virginia has strict childcare laws, known as minimum standards, through the Department of Health and Human Resources. As part of these requirements, daycare centers are required to:

Ensure children have adequate supervision at all times,

Provide clear sightlines for staff supervision of children,

Ensure staff are aware of a child’s behavioral issues,

Delegate a staff member to inform a child’s parents when there is a pattern of unacceptable behavior,

Take action following a child’s inappropriate behavior.

Incidents of daycare sexual abuse are easily preventable when caregivers follow state-mandated minimum standards and properly supervise children throughout the facility, including playground areas. Along with close supervision of children, daycare centers are responsible for training their staff to recognize when a child’s behavior is inappropriate, such as removing the clothing of another child, touching and groping of a sexual nature, and speaking in an explicit and adult-like manner. Daycare centers must be sure to have protocols in place to address incidents of criminal behavior immediately, such as those in this West Virginia case.

Sadly, this West Virginia daycare center failed these innocent children and their parents. In the first instance of sexual abuse, the daycare workers watched another child victimize his classmate yet chose not to follow escalation protocols by reporting it to the state or the child’s parents. In the second instance of abuse involving the little girl, the daycare’s workers neglected to properly supervise the children on the playground, opting instead to sit in the shade, where they did not have a proper sightline to parts of the playground.

A West Virginia Daycare Center’s Track Record of Supervision Failures

Plain and simple: Proper supervision could have stopped and prevented these children from being victims of sexual abuse at the daycare center in West Virginia. However, these two incidents were not isolated.

A deeper dive into its safety record found the daycare center had more than 22 citations from the state for failing to comply with various laws, including failure to properly supervise children, in the five years leading up to the sexual abuse incidents of this case. Citations ranged from the daycare center leaving children on the playground, failing to ensure children were accounted for, failing to supervise children during a fire drill, and staff not completing mandatory child abuse recognition and prevention training.

This daycare center’s history of negligence, specifically related to closely watching the children in its care, indicates child safety was not a priority for the facility or its workers.

Free Resources to Help Parents and Child Victims of Sexual Abuse

Like the children and families involved in this case, survivors of sexual abuse can be traumatized and require long-term resources to properly heal. We’ve created the following free resources to help guide families through the aftermath of sexual abuse at daycare centers:

More Helpful Information

For guidance on navigating the aftermath of daycare injuries, explore these articles. They offer valuable insights into understanding legal rights, addressing medical concerns, and ensuring your child's safety and well-being, providing the crucial information you need to effectively handle such situations.

How The Button Law Firm Can Help Your Family After Sexual Abuse at a Daycare Center

Our team of experienced and compassionate daycare injury attorneys at The Button Law Firm is dedicated to advocating for you and your family if your child was sexually abused at a daycare center, school, or camp. We are ready to listen and fight to help your family get justice and move forward. Our attorneys at The Button Law Firm are recognized on the prestigious Texas Super Lawyers list, and we can help guide you after a traumatizing incident like sexual abuse involving your child. We work on contingency, meaning we don’t charge you or collect any upfront fees to get started on your case. Call us at 214-699-4409 or fill out a contact form for a free consultation.

Schedule a Free Case Evaluation with a Texas Daycare Abuse Attorney Today

If you or someone you know has a child who was harmed by their daycare teacher, contact our firm. We know how difficult getting through this can be. Our experienced team wants to help guide you – as we have helped guide many parents and families within Midland, Houston, Dallas, and the surrounding areas.

You can give us a call at (214) 699-4409 or email us at [email protected]. You can also reach out to us by filling out the form below or by starting a chat with a member of our team.

DISCLAIMER: The results are specific to the facts and legal circumstances of each of the clients' cases and should not be used to form an expectation that the same results could be obtained for other clients in similar matters without reference to the specific factual and legal circumstances of each client's case.

How Our Daycare Injury Lawyers Helped Two West Virginia Families Following Child-on-Child Sexual Abuse