A former teacher at a childcare center in Middletown is accused of tossing a 2-year-old child "like a piece of luggage" into a wall at the facility and has been arrested.
Middletown police said it happened at Town & Country Early Learning Center at 195 South Main St. on Jan. 12.
They started the investigation that day when the child's guardian went to police to ask that the teacher be arrested after the facility notified her about the assault and allowed her to watch internal surveillance video of the incident, according to police.
Police identified the teacher as 47-year-old Kristie Kovarcik, of Haddam. Town & Country reported that Kovarcik was terminated from her job, according to police.
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The guardian of the 2-year-old told police what she saw.
She said the child fell to the ground, then Kovarcik grabbed the child's shirt with both hands, picked the child off the ground and launched the 2-year-old "through the air like a piece of luggage," the arrest warrant says.
According to police, the director of the facility heard an elevated voice when it happened, pulled up the surveillance camera for Kovarcik’s room and saw children "wrestling."
Kovarcik was standing there, allowing the children to wrestle, which is not allowed. Then she picked the child up off the ground by the back of her shirt, threw the child off to the side, and there was a loud thud as though something hit the wall, the director told police.
The director then ran into the room and found the child crying.
Kovarcik said the victim was fine, according to the arrest warrant.
The director removed the child and reported the incident to the parents and the state Department of Children and Families.
Detectives obtained the surveillance video and found that it confirmed that Kovarcik picked up the child, tossed the student to the side and the child’s head hit a nearby wall, causing a minor contusion above the right eye, police said.
The arrest warrant says the child was thrown around six feet.
Kovarcik has been charged with risk of injury to a minor and reckless endangerment in the second degree.
She said in a statement that it was "chaotic," children were pushing and pulling each other and the 2-year-old was climbing on top of another child, according to the arrest warrant. So, Kovarcik said, she grabbed the victim, moved the child out of the way and the child's head hit the wall.
Kovarcik said in the statement that it was not intentional, she was remorseful and admitted to losing her cool, the arrest warrant says. She had worked at the daycare since 2019.
Police said they reviewed some video footage with the daycare director and video from Nov. 1 showed Kovarcik shove someone, the arrest warrant says, and video from Jan. 8 showed Kovarcik lift a young child out of a chair by the shirt and drop the child to the ground, kick a victim who was on the ground and push onto a child's chest to force the child to lie down at naptime.
"Upon observing the incident involving Ms. Kovarcik on our internal camera monitoring system, we immediately initiated an internal investigation, notified the appropriate state authorities, and terminated the employee. Our safety and training protocols are amongst the strictest in our industry and we treat any such incident with the utmost seriousness. The safety and protection of the children in our care is always our top priority," a spokesperson for Town & Country Early Learning Center, said in a statement.
The Office of Early Childhood released a statement on Tuesday afternoon.
“The Office of Early Childhood (OEC), the state agency that licenses child care programs, became aware of this unfortunate incident and conducted a joint investigation with DCF. While the program is currently in legal for failing to substantially comply with the Regulations, the resolution to the legal matter is pending. The OEC takes these situations very seriously and we take every measure needed to ensure the health and safety of children,” the statement says.
Kovarcik turned herself in to the police on Feb. 26. She is due in court on April 2nd.
Police obtained video footage from the daycare from Oct. 11 through Jan. 12 and they are going through it, according to police.
