‘Out of control’: Footage shows alleged abuse of preschool kids by former teacher’s aide
CHINO VALLEY, Ariz. - Several parents are angered by a preschool program in northern Arizona, and they’ve filed a lawsuit against the facility and staff over allegations of child abuse.
The surveillance footage sent to FOX 10 shows a sample size of what happened in the classrooms by a specific teacher’s aide.
Four mothers are coming forward about what happened to their children.
Crying, having bad dreams, experiencing anxiety
The mothers all sent their kids to Chino Valley Head Start Childcare Center. The program is administered by the Northern Arizona Council of Governments – which serves children from zero to five years old in Apache, Navajo, Coconino and Yavapai counties.
Courtney Silva and Jessica Ouellet describe the red flags they noticed with their children.
"So red flags started coming up in my mind when they would call me probably at least once a week, if not more, telling me he's crying hysterically, saying his stomach hurts or he would have a fever or whatever the reason was, and I'd have to come get him during the day, and he was perfectly fine," Silva said.
Ouellet gives her side.
"I would go and try to wake her up and have her get ready for school. She was refusing and throwing a fit, when previously she was running out the door, excited, and anxious to leave. Then it was just like a switch. She just was fighting, going to school, throwing a fit. She started having bad dreams and, like, nightmares," she said.
For Ouellet, her nightmare was about to begin.
A Chino Valley police report from January 2023 says teacher’s aide Tracey Stewart spanked Ouellet's non-verbal daughter and forced her into a chair.
"I was, obviously, like, freaked out and mad, and why would anyone hit her? For what reason?" Ouellet said.
In the surveillance video, you can see Stewart stand by the head of the table before she turns her attention to the little girl, using her right hand to spank her behind, then place her in the chair, jerking her around.
"I cried. I cried when I read the police report," she said. "It's a parent's worst nightmare."
Stewart is seen pulling the chair Ouellet's daughter is sitting in, suddenly dragging her away from the table.
The officer who wrote the report describes Stewart’s behavior as aggressive – physically and verbally.
‘I have guilt and shame for it every single day’
Blanca Aguiar says she also learned that Stewart got physical with her son.
"They said that my son was shoved in an aggressive manner," Aguiar said about what police told her.
Video shows Stewart pushing her little boy in the back of the head. There’s another clip showing Aguiar's son wasn’t just pushed, but grabbed in a rough manner.
In another clip, while cleaning a table, she sprays two kids in the face with a cleaning solution called Tersano, according to police.
Silva says her son was one of the boys sprayed.
"I have guilt and shame for it every single day. There is not one day that goes by that I don't feel horrible for it," Silva said when asked how she felt about not having control over a situation she didn't know about.
Police say Stewart’s behavior becomes more aggressive with every incident.
There's another clip as she’s seen smacking a boy in the face with napkins.
Stewart consistently gets physical, pushing the back of children’s heads and yanking at their arms while they’re sitting in their chairs.
In another video, a boy is simply sitting down when Stewart grabs his head from behind out of nowhere, pulling it back and quickly getting in his face.
"I honestly, I did not want to watch. But when I was watching them, all I see is a person that's completely out of control. A person that has a lot of rage to, you know, the kids, that she has zero patience with them," Aguiar said.
Child falls and hits her head, mother says
In a civil lawsuit filed against the program, Stewart and three of her superiors, documents say Stewart was fired as a teacher’s aide at a previous job for abusing children but was still hired at Chino Valley Head Start.
The complaint says these managers covered up the abuse, allowing Stewart to keep working.
The lawsuit says in December 2022, she pulled a mat from under a child, causing her to fall and hit her head, but no action was taken despite a manager witnessing the incident.
Nicole Stroh is that child’s mom.
"I just kind of thought, ‘OK, maybe she just rolled off.’ When it came to my attention that one of the teachers actually removed the bed out from underneath my daughter, I was furious, and I was in shock," she said.
In the child care center's response to the civil suit, the defendants deny all allegations and they say they're entitled to absolute immunity.
"Every time I see the video clips, it makes my blood boil. I can only imagine that that's what anybody's blood would do when you see what's happening. What I see, and what it appears to me, is that there is somebody who is acting clearly more aggressively with these children than any reasonable person would. There's simply no reason for this kind of thing," Solomon Radner, attorney for plaintiffs, said.
He says his clients have suffered physical and emotional harm.
"He's been diagnosed with PTSD from it. Psychologist. He has night terrors. He pees the bed. No matter what I do to try to console him, he just becomes beside himself, screaming, ‘No, no, no, no,’ like I'm going to hurt him," Silva said.
'Our kids are in therapy. They've regressed'
The Chino Valley Police Department (CVPD) investigated the incident involving Ouellet's daughter.
Stewart was placed on administrative leave and by March 2023, she was let go.
CVPD recommended to the Yavapai County Attorney’s Office (YCAO) that she be charged with aggravated assault on a minor.
YCAO declined to file, saying there was "no reasonable likelihood of conviction."
"How is this person just able to go about her life and her day as if nothing happened? They just simply fired or let go. Our kids are in therapy. They've regressed. They've had night terrors. They had bedwetting. Some of these children have behavior issues where they're angry and scared and anxious, and they don't know how to process those feelings being 3 or 4 years old," Ouellet said.
Defendants' lawyer gives statement
"Where else are they supposed to turn to get any sort of justice? Who else is supposed to hold these people accountable? The only way we can force behavior from people who don't want to correct their behavior is to make it too expensive not to," Radner said.
It was that spray bottle incident that led to Chino Valley Police submitting charges to the prosecutor.
Stewart faces one count of disorderly conduct and one count of assault.
The lawyer for the defendants, including Stewart, says the child care center can’t comment on pending litigation, but a statement reads, in full, "As I am sure you understand Chino Valley Head Start is not in a position to comment on pending litigation. However the program takes its responsibility to the children in the program very seriously as we take the allegations. The matter is being fully investigated and we are confident that we will be able to demonstrate the significant effort put into caring for the children in our charge."
The mothers regret choosing Chino Valley Head Start as a child care center for their kids.
"I feel like I should have been there to protect him, and I wasn’t," Aguiar said.
Court records show Stewart pleaded "not guilty" to those misdemeanor charges. Meanwhile, the plaintiffs in the civil lawsuit against her are requesting a jury trial, seeking compensatory or punitive damages.
