Mothers of kids who attended Bravo day care voice complaints over alleged abuse

Jan. 29--The mother of a 5-year-old boy police say was choked at a Bravo Arts Academy day care in Riverdale says she feels emboldened to rally other parents to speak out about suspected abuses in local child care centers.

"This lit a fire inside of me to speak my truth ... so that other victims will speak up," said the mother, Lindsay, in an interview.

The mother is referred to only by her first name in this story because the Standard-Examiner normally does not identify child victims of crime. Using her full name would identify the boy.

RELATED: Day care worker charged with child abuse at Riverdale'sBravo Arts Academy

Following the alleged incident involving Lindsay's son, a 20-year-old Bravo day care worker is facing a misdemeanor child abuse charge. Police reports say Alexander Jones of Layton choked the boy and slammed him to the ground Nov. 3.

Jones pleaded not guilty Jan. 17, and Bravo owner Angy Ford has strenuously denied -- in a prepared statement Jan. 12 and a blog post the next day -- that any abuse occurred. Ford, who has repeatedly declined to be interviewed, wrote that the boy had a long record of being physically disruptive and the day care was considering "reviewing its options with the student and the child's continued enrollment in the program."

Ford also assailed Riverdale police, saying in the blog post, "Many of the descriptions cited by the investigating officer are either misleading or blatantly untrue."

"It's pretty gutsy of her to bash me and my son and the police department," Lindsay said.

Bravo Police Report (PDF)

Bravo Police Report (Text)

Statewide, the Utah Bureau of Child Development has dealt with more than 2,000 reports of caregiver-related incidents requiring investigation at Utah day cares since 2012, with the highest number -- 486 cases -- being reported in 2016. (See the chart below for more data.)

Police and state child welfare workers began investigating Lindsay's case after she contacted authorities.

She said Jones "was absolutely inappropriately forceful and abusive with my son." She said she was called to the day care after workers told her there had been an incident. Ford said in her prepared statement the child was being calmly restrained so other children would not be hurt.

"I'm mostly upset because just the way Angy Ford of Bravo has handled it," Lindsay said. "There is no concern for my family or son or no acknowledgement of anything abusive and inappropriate that happened.

"I gave all of them the chance to do the right thing and do right by my son and everybody else's kids there," Lindsay said. "The whole thing is disgusting."

Since Jones was charged, the boy's mother has engaged in a social media debate about Bravo. She has gained support from other parents who have complaints about the day care, while defenders of the company have posted about their good experiences.

Referring to Ford, Lindsay added, "She wants to skew it and make it look like I'm some overly emotional mother to slander and gossip about her, and that's not true. I am the defending voice for my son."

OTHER INVESTIGATIONS

After reading about accusations against Jones, other parents of students who attended day care at Bravo contacted the Standard-Examiner to share their stories.

One of them was a woman who told police in late September 2016 a caregiver at Bravo's Clearfield day care slapped her 3-year-old daughter repeatedly and shoved the child's head into a cot.

"For a few weeks after that she was having nightmares," the mother said in an interview. "She was terrified for me to leave her."

Fearing Bravo would take legal action against her for speaking out, the woman asked to remain anonymous. She said an attorney representing Bravo sent her a letter in September threatening a lawsuit if she made allegations about the matter on social media.

The case is being screened for possible criminal charges by the Davis County Attorney's Office, Clearfield Assistant Police Chief Mike Stenquist said Thursday.

Meanwhile, the woman said Friday a Utah Division of Child and Family Services caseworker told her the agency's investigation into her complaint had been closed. She said the caseworker wouldn't elaborate on why the agency closed the investigation, which was separate from the police investigation.

At the conclusion of DCFS investigations, caseworkers make findings for each allegation and any others that are identified. State regulations say these findings can be that an allegation is supported (or there's a reasonable basis to conclude abuse occurred); an allegation is unsupported; or an allegation is without merit.

Cases are closed when they fall under the latter two findings.

READ MORE: Bravo attorney's cease-and-desist letter to the mother of a former daycare attendee

READ MORE: Bravo owner Angy Ford's prepared statement of Jan. 12, 2017

In an email sent to Bravo customers Thursday, Ford referred to an alleged slapping incident at the Clearfield location.

"The child was not touched ... The teacher was so emotionally devastated by the mother she stopped working for Bravo and has since decided to pursue her teaching degree," Ford wrote.

In early 2014, another parent told police her child had been abused at Bravo in Clearfield, although the report could not be substantiated .

The mother went to police after her 4-year-old son told her a caregiver touched the child's genitals and took a photo of him in the bathroom, according to a police report obtained through an open records request.

However, after an investigation, the county attorney's office declined to prosecute, citing insufficient evidence. There was no video evidence of anything improper, a hospital examination of the boy turned up no evidence of sexual abuse, the employee denied any wrongdoing, and no photos of the boy were found on the employee's phone or home desktop computer, the report said.

According to the police report, the mother complained that Ford called her to ask why she had gone to police first. Ford also told police she wanted to tell the employee about the allegations before police interviewed him, the report says.

"Generally we are careful about that," Stenquist said. "We want to be able to contact a suspect before he has a chance to get rid of evidence or create an alibi, before he or she is confronted by someone else."

However, Stenquist said employers are typically cautious when abuse allegations are made. "They're worried about getting sued, like everybody is," he said.

Ford set a meeting with a detective and the employee for the next day but later called to cancel the meeting, saying she "wanted to make sure she was doing the right thing for her employee and the company," according to the police report.

In an interview, the boy's mother said she thinks Ford interfered in the investigation by intervening before officers had a chance to talk to the day care worker.

"She called me and asked me about the incident despite the police telling her not to call me," the mother said. "During that conversation she told me that she was going to tell the employee that he was being investigated.

"I feel like his case got dismissed and swept under the rug," she said.

'MOMMY GUILT'

The Standard-Examiner on Thursday attempted to interview Ford and Bravo attorney Richard Reeve about the Clearfield cases. Ford twice hung up on a reporter and did not respond to an email. Reeve did not respond to an email, and his office phone was not answered.

Soon after, Ford sent an email to a Bravo mailing list complaining about the news coverage of her business and attributing parents' complaints to "mommy guilt."

"As a mother of 5 who works full-time, I understand mommy guilt and feelings of frustration for not being there when your child has a bad day or gets hurt," the email said. "I have also experienced that some people deal with these feelings by placing blame, especially when they associate with others who have that same coping response. This is what I believe is happening on social media."

Lindsay said her son's treatment at Bravo "has had a huge impact on my family."

Her son "is doing OK, but I wouldn't say he wasn't untouched" by the alleged incident, she said.

You can reach reporter Mark Shenefelt at mshenefelt@standard.net or 801 625-4224. Follow him on Twitter at @mshenefelt and like him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/SEmarkshenefelt.

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