Connecticut Daycare Teacher Charged After Allegedly Throwing Child Against Wall ‘Like a Piece of Luggage’

Kristie Kovarcik, 47, turned herself into police on Feb. 26

A Connecticut teacher has been arrested and charged with risk of injury to a minor and reckless endangerment in the second degree in connection with an alleged assault of a two-year-old at a daycare center.

Kristie Kovarcik turned herself into authorities on Feb. 26, more than a month after a complaint was filed alleging that she assaulted a two-year-old child at Town & Country Early Learning Center, according to a release issued by the City of Middletown Police Department.

On Jan. 12, a complaint was received by the Middletown Police Special Investigations Unit alleging that a child was assaulted at the daycare center. In surveillance video obtained by detectives, Kovarcik, 47, “picked up the minor child and tossed the child to the side.” The two-year-old’s head “struck a nearby wall” which caused a “minor contusion” above their eye, per police.

According to the release, the daycare director allegedly heard a “commotion” and checked the surveillance video, where she saw Kovarcik “toss the child aside and hear the child’s head strike the wall.” The director then stepped in, removing the child, and reported the incident to the parents and to the Connecticut  Department of Children and Families.

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Upon seeing the video, the two-year-old’s guardian described Kovarcik as throwing the child “through the air like a piece of luggage,” according to an arrest warrant, Connecticut Insider reported. When Kovarcik was questioned later that day, she said, “I just kind of lost my cool” and described the day as “very chaotic,” according to the warrant.

Per the police's release, Kovarcik has since been “terminated” from her job at the daycare center "as a result of this incident."

After an investigation, police said they obtained an arrest warrant for Kovarcik on charges of risk of injury to a minor and reckless endangerment in the second degree. 

She turned herself in on Feb. 26. She was then processed and “released on a Written Promise to Appear.” Per the police, she was scheduled to appear in Middletown Court on Monday. 

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