Shocking: Southcentral Foundation child care center surprise inspection reveals children being abused

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A surprise visit at the Southcentral Foundation Employee Family Center by the Municipality of Anchorage Health Department found disturbing instances, some of which appear to border on child abuse.

The June 17 investigation confirmed some of the allegations in reports the municipality had received, including:

  • Children in the infant and toddler rooms were being hit on their hands, arms, butts, and mouths for normal developmental behaviors;
  • Children in the infant and toddler rooms were having their mouths covered for crying;
  • Caregivers in the infant and toddler rooms were sleeping while caring for children;
  • Children were being talked and/or yelled at to “shut up” and were being called “bitches” and “bastards;”
  • Children were being left alone on the diapering table.

“Upon completion of the investigation the department found the following allegations to be unsubstantiated: caregivers are caring for children while high on marijuana; a caregiver is physically restraining children and covering their mouths for 5 to 10 minutes; caregivers in the toddler room are unaware of how children are receiving injuries; a vaping pen is being used on site that can be smelled throughout the facility; and children are being left to sleep on u-shaped pillows,” the report said.

However, the facility, which has a capacity for 96 children, was out of compliance with the following:

  • The administrator failed to appropriately supervise and discipline staff;
  • A child in the toddler room went up to a caregiver crying and the caregiver walked away;
  • An infant child was put to sleep in a heavy winter sleeper in a room with a temperature of 78.1 degrees Fahrenheit;
  • A caregiver left a child alone on a diapering table;
  • Several staff have slept while caring for children;
  • A caregiver in the infant room was physically disciplining children on the hand and hovering a hand over a child’s mouth to quiet the child;
  • A caregiver was calling infants “big cry babies” and one child a “crack head;”
  • A caregiver failed to wash her hands after diapering.

The facility was issued a warning notice and it submitted a correction plan to bring it into compliance. According to reports, several staff members of the facility have since been fired.

The report is at this link.

30 COMMENTS

  1. I remember when Don Young said that
    South central was an great example for health care, unfortunately Don never talked to the people being ” served”. This is not unusual unfortunately.

  2. What they need to do is the perpetrators of the child abuse need to get the same treatment that they were dishing out. Although some may appreciate the spanking, I’m not sure they would accommodate all the bad behavior. I know a teacher that was allowed to resign from teaching who went to work for them and in my opinion she shouldn’t have been within 100 ft of any kids. That’s not to say that all teachers or all of the non-profit employees are child abusers. I remember the last time I got paddled in school was when I was a senior in high school for a towel fight in the locker room but I wouldn’t call that child abuse.

    • I just reread the article and while my perception of child abuse nowadays involves spanking, nowhere did I read that they were actually spanking kids rather they were hitting them on the hands. Tit for tat but there you go.

      • “The June 17 investigation confirmed”:

        “Children in the infant and toddler rooms were being hit on their hands, arms, butts, and mouths for normal developmental behaviors;”

      • Wait I take that back, children were being hit on their butts. So open spanking and corporal punishment to infant children apparently is happening there. Wow. Typically natives don’t even spank their own children. I wonder why these people thought it was okay to take that practice upon themselves?

  3. The facility should be put on suspension or shut down until a criminal investigation into child abuse is conducted ASAP by Anchorage Police Department into this matter. Anywhere else in Anchorage, it would have been done as a matter of policy. Merely filing a report and firing of individuals at the facility is not good enough. Poor kids, it is not their fault they have such horrible caregivers.

  4. This report brings back fond memories from my childhood. On occasion , my older sister and I were interned in a Spenard establishment named the Kiddie Drop.
    Only the child providers of yesteryear didn’t vape, they smoked Lucky Stripes.
    We survived.

  5. This is what happens when people subcontract their parental responsibilities.
    .
    But… it is so vital that every household have two incomes!!! Why? So you can have a bunch of unnecessary luxury items? The average person who is handing off their children to a stranger at the ripe old age of six months (sometimes younger) is not doing it because they cannot afford living expenses. They are doing it because society (mostly driven by the feminist ideals) says career is more important than family.
    .
    It is BS, and the people pushing for more government funding for day care are not doing it to help families. They are doing it to destroy the family bonds between parent and child. Remember, for the leftists, your primary relationship is with the all powerful state. What better way to ensure that happens than day care?
    .
    If you have children, be sure you can raise them. Do not place a job before your responsibility as a parent.
    .
    Or, suffer the consequences. Your call.

    • Agree with all. It is tragic. Having children is a privilege not some ‘rite of passage’ to check off of a list. A baby is massive commitment and responsibility for 18 years plus.

  6. When my daughter was young I’d get calls often from the daycare that she had been injured. Most of the caretakers were young girls, talking on the phone. After I withdrew my daughter, I heard the daycare started losing kids on field trips, and eventually shut down because the ridiculous amount of money they were charging was not enough to stay open. Lol. I would say to expect this from most daycares, and only leave your kids with family. Better yet, try to work from home if possible.

  7. This type of situation is seen elsewhere in the United States and proves that there needs to be more checks in place to show that our children are being cared for at the highest level possible.

    • Or… I have a better idea.
      How about parents (crazy, I know) how about they take care of their own kids? You know, just like parents have done for centuries.
      .
      Is there a better way to ensure the children are cared for at the “highest possible level” than caring for them yourself? No day care worker will ever care for your child the same way you do. Nope, not happening. Want your kids to be well taken care of? Do it yourself.

  8. Trusting your kids to others was one of the most difficult decisions I have had to make. With corrective actions implemented, Hopefully this story will have a happy ending. Further suggestions to right this wrong.
    Have video cameras installed in the child care facility to monitor the staff?
    Make the video available in real time for the parents to monitor?
    This is the very least that the SouthCentral foundation can do to protect the children of their workers. Not sure the workers will ever fully trust the caregivers with their children. I wouldn’t. Trust but Verify is the only solution.

  9. And I guess they forgot to report on the pedophile room
    Can we install the death penalty and actually enforce it here?
    This is grotesque

  10. … These were employees passing state background checks. A disturbing trend are many childcare, teachers and staff are unwell and unfit to take care of youth. But they passed a background check. However a clean record doesn’t mean they should be around youth. Discernment has to be used, and wisdom can only be found in bible, and torah what employers today don’t read.

    • And you know this how? You make a lot of assumptions on here, none of which are substantiated. When I was in education, we’ve been over backwards at the cost of job security and acceptance in the village, to a legal obligation to report child abuse. You can’t count on all your fingers and toes the many times that we’ve reported child abuse. Some resulting in felony conviction. So get off your high horse and commenting on things you know about which in my perspective is very little.

    • Funny thing: I knew kids when I grew up who were beaten (sorry, disciplined) by “good Christian” parents.

      Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker, and a host more “good Christians” read the Bible and did vile things. The Southern Baptist Convention is in the midst of the biggest sex scandal of their history.

      My own Catholic faith has a really sad history or protecting pedophile Priests.

      It goes on and on and on.

      All reading the Bible or Torah means is you read them. I’ve read the Koran.
      People of quality are people of quality regardless of their alleged faith.

      I tire of people who constantly make proclamations of the need to do as (they) think God instructs us. This forum is sadly overrun with them at times. It’s far easier to tell people how to act “Godly” than bother to live it.

      Discernment is a Nobel idea. Those who preach it should try it.

      • “Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker, and a host more “good Christians” read the Bible and did vile things. The Southern Baptist Convention is in the midst of the biggest sex scandal of their history.”
        .
        There are some two and a half plus Christian individuals on the planet, and you point out a few that have done vile things. Even if 10 million Christians did “vile things” that represents about 0.4% of the total. And, I doubt you can point to anywhere near that many Christians that did vile things.
        .
        So, please do not assume all people who have faith are the same as the tiny fraction that do wrong. The overwhelming majority of Christians, well people of all faiths for that matter, are trustworthy, honest, and respectful. Dismissing that because of a few bad individuals means you are the dishonest, disrespectful, and frankly, not trustworthy one.

    • Regarding background checks. There are background checks and background checks. Depends how deep you wanna dive.

      Many places are held up by the state of Alaska’s slow pace of approvals.

      The FBI is too busy going through Melania’s underwear than doing their job.

  11. On June 17, 2022 through July 13, 2022 – The department conducted an unannounced investigation in response to a report of concern received by the department. What about reports of drag queens telling stories to children at the municipal library? Is this not lewd perverse behavior and grooming??? I don’t approve of any maltreatment but the muni has set a double standard. What’s it going to be Anchorage assembly? Whatever fits your narrative at the moment???

  12. Sadly lost in all this is the prevailing culture of casual violence all across Alaska.

    Assuming we don’t become Portland (not a safe bet) we’re overdue on a hard look at ourselves.

    • Rap Criminal Gang Culture has been popular in song, dance and pop culture for almost 50 years. Why am I surprised by “casual violence”.

  13. Mike Dunleavy, anybody seen him? Yah I know kids being abused by a state funded institution are not under his jurisdiction!!!!
    Dah I tot I saw a rabbit!!!

  14. I filed a Hippa complaint 2018 when a SCF staff put my name out. Never heard back. Doctor Gottlieb runs this joint.

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