A woman who was convicted of abusing children at a daycare center has been sentenced to 50 years in prison, according to The Sacramento Bee. The abuse happened in South Carolina. The woman was convicted of six counts of committing or attempting to commit lewd acts on children under the age of 16, according to the story. The woman was acquitted on two charges of first-degree criminal sexual conduct of a child under age 11.
The abuse took place in 2010 in Greer, South Carolina. According to the report, the children were abused in the bathroom. The circumstances of this case are, unfortunately, pretty common as far as the sexual abuse of children at daycare facilities goes.
Understanding Abusers
Understanding abusers doesn’t mean having sympathy for them, but it does mean understanding how they do what they do and how they get away with it. Understanding this can help you to identify cases of possible abuse in a daycare center.
The first thing to note about this case is that the abuse took place in the bathroom. In too many daycare centers, bathrooms are places where workers can be isolated with children, giving them an opportunity to commit acts of abuse. It’s important that daycare workers either work in teams or that some sort of supervision is provided so that children are never able to be isolated. Isolation is one of an abuser’s most important tools.
Sometimes, abusers will manage to get children to be quiet about the abuse by intimidating them or threatening their families. Harboring a suspicion of daycare abuse is nerve-racking, but sometimes your child will simply be too scared to help you affirm or negate those suspicions. Sometimes, this is how abuse ends up going on for far too long.
As one father of one of the abused children said at the trial, the woman had betrayed trust. Daycare centers have an obligation to provide quality, competent care to the children that they supervise and to the families that pay them. If your child has been abused at a daycare facility, whether or not criminal charges have resulted from that abuse, be sure to contact an attorney about the matter. They may be able to help you get compensation from the daycare operator for what you have been put through and for the money you spent on the daycare that ended up being spent on a worthless service.