Five additional complaints have been filed against an Upstate, South Carolina child care facility – prompting the S.C. Department of Social Services (SCDSS) to conduct an on-site inspection on Monday.
According to SCDSS’ website, the five new complaints against Celebration Christian Academy and Preschool in Simpsonville, S.C. were logged on Monday (April 4, 2022).
The complaints come two-and-a-half weeks after this news outlet exclusively reported on allegations of verbal and physical abuse of children at the facility – which is affiliated with Celebration Church.
Some of these allegations were made in a Facebook post published last month by Joshua Adams of Grey Court, S.C. Adams’ wife – Morgan Adams – was employed by Celebration from February to August of 2019. Morgan Adams is one of several former employees of this facility to sound the alarm. Several parents have also contacted us reiterating the allegations.
Georgie Shirley and her husband, Heindrich Shirley, are co-pastors of the church and owners of the academy. In an interview last month, Georgie Shirley chalked up the allegations to “disgruntled employees.” She denied allegations that anyone at Celebration had ever verbally or physically abused children who were placed in the facility’s care.
Nonetheless, SCDSS is probing five new complaints involving the facility – four of which are “high” in severity. According to SCDSS, “these are the most serious violations of child care regulations and could pose a risk to the health and safety of children.”
The four high severity complaints revolve around “staff requirements,” “direct supervision” of children, “background checks for employees” and the enforcement of proper “staff/ child ratios.”
Last June, the facility’s staff/ child ratios were found to be “noncompliant with regulation,” according to an SCDSS inspection form (.pdf).
No details about the latest complaints were available online – and SCDSS did not immediately respond to a request for comment. As I noted last month, this news outlet has been inundated with information about this facility – information which we are in the process of vetting.
Stay tuned … in the event we receive additional information regarding the status of this investigation we will be sure to update our readers.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
(Via: FITSNews)
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and seven children. Oh, he also has LOTS of hats … but has given them up for Lent this year.
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