James A. Byrne U.S. Courthouse in Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA – Abuse of a 1-year-old at a Delaware County day care is alleged in a recently filed lawsuit that comes months after two women were charged with assault.
Taniece Williams sued Delaware County Intermediate Unit, which operates Head Start programs including CTE Folcroft, in federal court Jan. 20. She sued on behalf of her son known as O.W. who allegedly had his face smashed into a cot, among other things.
Stephanie Callahan and Rochelle Weaver face criminal charges filed last year. They are named as defendants in Williams’ civil suit.
“Rather than protect this vulnerable toddler, DCIU and its employees ignored prior injuries, failed to investigate or report suspected abuse, falsified the results of a video review, concealed wrongdoing, and only acknowledged ‘disturbing’ conduct after being compelled by subpoena,” the suit says.
O.W. was approaching 2 years old during the alleged abuse. In December, Williams noted marks on O.W.’s face after school and reported it to DCIU staff, which failed to make a ChildLine report.
Two months later, she noticed a scratch under his right eye, a mark on his nose, an injury on his lip and swelling. She again reported this to DCIU, which again did not submit a ChildLine report.
So Williams called the cops. She took O.W. to the hospital and was told on Feb. 28 that DCIU staff had reviewed an hour of surveillance footage during which O.W. was sleeping. When she asked to see the video, she was told no, the suit says.
A detective obtained a warrant for the footage on March 6. The next day, DCIU admitted to Williams that they had seen abuse on the video, the suit says.
It wasn’t until the Delco Times picked up on the story on March 28 that she learned what had happened to her son. Footage showed Callahan and Weaver dropping him, covering his face with a blanket and handling him with excessive force.
“DCIU repeatedly failed to implement or enforce adequate training, supervision, reporting protocols, or investigation procedures within its early childhood programs,” the lawsuit alleges.
“These failures included ignoring parental complaints, refusing to show a parent video footage, failing to review surveillance in a timely or truthful manner, intentionally misrepresenting the content of the footage, failing to report suspected abuse, conducting sham investigations, allowing inadequately trained staff to supervise vulnerable toddlers, and concealing evidence of misconduct.”
Michael van der Ven and Steven Bryson of van der Veen, Hartshorn, Levin & Lindheim represent the plaintiff.
