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topicnews · October 24, 2024

Police want parents’ help in investigating child abuse in daycare centers

Police want parents’ help in investigating child abuse in daycare centers

SIOUX FALLS, SD (Dakota News Now) – Sioux Falls Police released additional information to Dakota News Now on Tuesday about a possible child abuse case at a Sioux Falls daycare.

Up to 150 families are now seeking care for their children as Wildflower Academy in northwest Sioux Falls has been temporarily closed while city police investigate the incident involving an adult and a child.

Around noon, Sioux Falls police received a call from the Department of Social Services’ Child Protective Services Division.

“They had information about physical abuse, not sexual abuse, but some physical abuse that occurred there between an employee and a child,” SFPD Public Information Officer Sam Clemens told Dakota News Now.

Approximately an hour after the initial DSS call, at approximately 1:00 p.m., officers were dispatched to Wildflower.

“There was enough information that led us to believe that leaving children in this daycare could potentially harm other children,” Clemens said.

Parents and guardians were called and asked to pick up their children as quickly as possible, and police stayed until they were all gone.

“This is something similar – not the same situation at all – but something similar when a child is in a house or apartment and the living conditions are so bad that there is no longer a safe environment for the child and the police could remove them. “ the child from this home.

DSS investigators were also on site at Wildflower. There were no reports of chaos or unrest.

No arrests have been made and Sioux Falls Police do not currently have anyone charged with a crime.

Clemens said there may be additional victims and encouraged parents who have any information to call Sioux Falls police.

“It can certainly be disturbing and parents would have a lot of questions wondering if their child was involved,” Clemens said. “It could be something small, something a child says or the way they act. Might be something a little different than what they normally are.

“If people are having thoughts or thinking that something is wrong because they see certain signs in how the child is behaving or what they are saying, things like that could be valuable to us.”

Clemens said he was unaware of previous incidents at Wildflower and that reports of child abuse at day care centers in Sioux Falls are rare.

“There are probably many aspects to this,” Clemens said. “Whenever we have problems in a daycare, we have to look at a lot of different things to figure out if there are problems.”

Closing Wildflower was not the police’s decision. Clemens said the DSS controls the licensing of daycare centers.

“We work hand in hand on many issues,” said Clemens about the DSS, which also had investigators on site.

At the time of publishing this story, DSS has not responded to Dakota News Now’s questions about what the investigation revealed, why Wildflower is temporarily closed and what it would take to reopen the daycare.

A Dakota News Now investigation into Wildflower’s recent DSS inspections found that the operation has had issues with compliance with some DSS standards in recent years – particularly a fire safety issue involving a door and six employees within 90 days of theirs Hiring did not complete orientation training – but the facility eventually corrected all of these issues.