State Orders Greenwood Day Care to Close

By Vic Ryckaert
Indianapolis Star
February 8, 2013

http://www.indystar.com/article/20130207/LOCAL0402/302070339/State-orders-Greenwood-day-care-to-close-?nclick_check=1

State officials are shutting down a Greenwood church’s day care after a church official accused of sexual abuse was allowed near the children.

The Little Angels Daycare and Preschool in White River Baptist Church must close by Wednesday. Sherri Backemeyer, a consultant who inspected the facility for the state, found the church official on the premises on Jan. 30, said Marni Lemons, a spokeswoman for the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration.

“This person was not charged or convicted of a crime, but the Department of Child Services substantiated a claim of sexual abuse,” Lemons said. The church had been warned to keep the official away from the building, she said.

The Indianapolis Star left messages for the Rev. Steve Finke, senior pastor at the church, and day care director Amy Chilton.

The church day care at 1222 Demaree Road cares for about 130 children. Lemons said the state has given the day care permission to operate until Wednesday to give parents time to find alternative care.

Greenwood Police Assistant Chief Matt Fillenwarth said a church deacon was accused of inappropriately touching a child last year, but the evidence was weak.

“We weren’t able to get anything close to a criminal case,” Fillenwarth said.

The deacon has not been arrested or charged, but Fillenwarth said police were still 8investigating and planned to interview other parents and children.

While private day care centers are subject to heavy regulation, Indiana law allows religious nonprofits to avoid most state oversight.

But workers in and around church day cares must pass a background check, Lemons said. State law says that anyone with a “substantiated” claim of abuse must stay away from the kids.

Sandy Runkle, programs director for Prevent Child Abuse Indiana, said child welfare officials often substantiate abuse in cases where the facts don’t rise to a standard that must be met by law enforcement.

“If they substantiate, that means they have that preponderance of evidence, or they believe 51 percent that this is true,” Runkle said. “You are going to err on the side of caution, especially when you are dealing with young children.”

Anyone who cares for kids, Runkle said, has a duty to protect them and keep them safe.

“Why would you take the chance in having any kind of alone time or exposing children to someone if your gut is telling (you) not to?” Runkle asked.

The agency ordered the church to keep the deacon off the property or lose its day care license, Lemons said. The FSSA decided to revoke the day care’s registration after Backemeyer found the church official in the building on Jan. 30.

The state notified the church in a letter the next day.

“During the inspection it was determined that a person with a known substantiation for sexual abuse has been present in the child care facility on several occasions throughout the past nine months,” Child Care Administrator Melanie Brizzi wrote in a letter to the church.

If the church operates its day care without being properly registered, Brizzi’s letter states, it could face fines of up to $100 a day.

The day care has had other recent problems.

Last month, Fillenwarth said police investigated Little Angels after a child was left alone on a bus for about an hour. The driver failed to check the bus and did not notice the sleeping child, Fillenwarth said. Police didn’t make any arrests, he said, but detectives forwarded that complaint to child welfare officials.

Call Star reporter Vic Ryckaert at (317) 444-2701.