Parents charge abuse at USM day care

 
STEVEN A. McCALEB
103 ALVERADO DRIVE
LONG BEACH, MISSISSIPPI 39560
PHONE & FAX: (228)-868-8428

E-MAIL: mccaleb4thdist@aol.com

WEB SITE: www.mississippiwebsite.com

By MARY KAY DIRICKSON

Monday, April 30, 2007

SUN HERALD

I can tell Mace and Michelle Harrison how their lawsuit will come out.

USM is a political inanity, the university is protected by elected officials and state agencies.

I have dealt with USM and I believe corruption is ramped.

Please check out my web site: www.mississippiwebsite.com

A Pass Christian couple have accused the University of Southern Mississippi of covering up child abuse at its Gulf Coast day care center.

Mace and Michelle Harrison have sued the university, the Early Childhood Center in Long Beach, its director, Paula Triche, education division head Nancy Masztal and teacher Ann Marie McIntyre, the teacher they claim abused their daughter when she was 2 years old.

The Harrisons claim that Triche, Masztal and possibly other members of the administration knew that McIntyre was physically abusing preschoolers and that the university hid the problem from law enforcement authorities and parents. They said that they didn't know their own daughter had been mistreated until a year and a half after they had withdrawn her from the center.

The Harrisons are seeking $250,000 in compensatory damages and $2 million in punitive damages.

USM attorney Lee Gore said that when he was notified in September that the Harrisons would sue, he alerted the Risk Management Office of the state Institutions of Higher Learning. He said that after an investigation, the office decided the university was not liable. He wouldn't comment further on the case.

"What we expected was Southern, as an institution, to come to us whenever there was something wrong, which they should have done," said Mace Harrison, who owns a carpet and tile cleaning business. "I just can't believe they didn't."

The Harrisons enrolled their daughter at the university-operated center in the fall of 1997, the year after it opened. They knew Triche, the director, and were impressed by the curriculum planned for the 2- and 3-year-old children.

But the Harrisons said they became concerned about how the childhood center was run and withdrew their daughter in February 1998.

In November 2000, another parent handed a copy of a letter to Michelle Harrison. The four-page document was addressed to Triche and was written by Leigh Seal, a teacher at the center, and DeNiese Barnette, a teacher's assistant. It was dated June 1998.

In it, Barnette and Seal say they saw McIntyre hit, shake, jerk and throw children. They describe a scene in which McIntyre left a child in the bathroom, covered in her own filth, and another scene in which McIntyre threw the Harrisons' daughter over her shoulder and then dropped her onto a mat.

McIntyre didn't return calls Friday.

Barnette and Seal say that they had complained verbally to Triche before they wrote the letter, but nothing was done.

"They just kept sweeping it under the carpet," Barnette said. "They just said, 'We don't want the parents to know, we have to work this out and see what we're going to do.' ”

Barnette said McIntyre was eventually put on leave. Barnette said that she was fired when she told several parents what McIntyre had done.

After reading the letter that Barnette and Seal had written, Michelle Harrison went to the Long Beach police.

"I went directly to (then-Police Chief Tom Bishop) and I sat on his floor and cried for hours," she said.

McIntyre was arrested and charged with child abuse. But in criminal court, the family was told the statute of limitations had run out, so it was too late to prosecute.

The Harrisons hope it isn't too late to sue in civil court.

"One of the problems is that once it is reported to (USM officials), they have a responsibility to report it to the state and to the parents," said the Harrisons' attorney, Mark Larson. "They clearly breached an ethical, legal and proprietary responsibility."

The suit states that the defendants committed assault, negligence, mental and physical child abuse, and conspired to cover up those acts.

Leigh Seal said that she resigned from the center, where she felt the process for protecting children had broken down.

Mary Kay Dirickson can be reached at 896-2105 or at mdirickson@sunherald.com.

 

Timeline August 1996: Early Childhood Center opens. Fall 1997: Mace and Michelle Harrison's daughter is enrolled. February 1998: The Harrisons withdraw their daughter. June 1998: Teachers Leigh Seal and Deniese Barnette submit a four-page letter to center director Paula Triche, detailing abuse they say they've witnessed. November 2000: Upon receiving a copy of Seal and Barnette's letter from another parent, Harrison goes to the Long Beach Police Department to file a complaint. McIntyre is arrested and charged with misdemeanor child abuse. But the Harrisons are told the statute of limitations has run out and it is too late to prosecute. September 2001: The Harrisons notify USM of their intent to sue. December 2001: The Harrisons file suit in Circuit Court; USM has not yet received a copy of the lawsuit, but will be given time to respond.

Mace and Michelle Harrison's daughter is shown as a 2-year-old while enrolled at USM-Gulf Coast's Early Childhood Center in the fall of 1997. The Harrisons, who live in Pass Christian, are suing the University of Southern Mississippi and some of its officials, claiming that the university knew children were being physically abused but neglected to tell parents.