A daycare owner in Colorado Springs, Colorado, has been charged with child abuse after officers found more than 20 children under age 3 hidden behind a false wall, ABC News reports.
Carla Faith, 58, has been charged with child abuse and attempt to influence a public servant after a welfare check on her daycare, Play Mountain Place, in November, following complaints Faith "was housing more children in their care than their licensed allowed," according to a statement from the City of Colorado Springs.
Faith "refused to cooperate" with officers from the Colorado Springs Police Department during a welfare check at the daycare, which was in a building connected to her home. Officers heard the sounds of children inside her home and located a false wall hiding an entrance to the basement, where they found two adults and 26 children under the age of 3. The daycare's license was "immediately" suspended, according to the statement.
According to KRDO in Colorado Springs, Faith was previously caught in a similar situation in California in the 1990's, but state officials said the licensing agency would have no way of knowing that.
"It's just not something that's part of our application process, nor do we really have the authority to require that information," Erin Mewhinney, the Division Director of Early Childhood Care and Learning, told KRDO. "We're working with the state board of human services to allow the department the authority to require child abuse and neglect records from other states of an applicant is coming in from another state."
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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