I have tried my best to handle this situation quietly, tactfully, and calmly, one on one with the…read moredirector. But in light of recent events and the unprofessional behavior of the director, I will be speaking publicly about my experience with Bright Circle Preschool in Topeka.
I loved this school. Past tense being key here. When I toured the school and researched reviews and recommendations, I was impressed. They explained their curriculum and the Montessori practices, and my daughter felt comfortable leaving my side and going to play.
I enrolled her and things were going great. My daughter made friends and was learning and excelling academically. Then December rolled around. At pick up, I was told that my daughter was extremely upset and "was acting uncontrollable" for most of the day. To the point that they considered calling me to come get her. They didn't, and this is completely out of character for her. I got her home and got her ready for a bath so she is clean and ready for her school Christmas concert that evening. She gets undressed and in the tub. Then I see the small, but very there amount of dried blood present in her underwear. I ask her what happened and she tells me she doesn't want to talk about it. I immediately take her to Children's Mercy in KC. The whole drive, I'm asking her all the questions, "did someone touch you? Who hurt you? What happened?" And frantically trying to get in touch with the school to find out why and how my daughter got these injuries in their care. When I finally got in touch with the director, Betsey Litscher, I was met with only, "I don't knows."
We spend 11 hours in the hospital where my poor daughter endured a full physical sexual assault examination, swabbing, sedation, sleep deprivation, no food for hours, missed her first Christmas concert and was questioned repeatedly about this thing that never should have happened. Something did in fact happen and a teacher there at the time witnessed this. I still don't, and probably never will, know the whole story or if this is even what happened. This teacher saw a child with her hands down my daughter's pants and went on to inform no one. And then no one informed me. They helped my daughter go to the bathroom and never told me about the blood on her underwear. Then I had to call the director REPEATEDLY to try to get to the bottom of why I was not notified of any incident and to set up a meeting between myself, the teacher who witnessed this, and the director. It took over a week. At first, Betsey was defensive, argumentative, and dismissive. I lost it a little, as I think most moms would at this point. I also demanded cameras be put up and Betsey assured me numerous times that cameras would be put up, and that this was a fluke accident that will never be tolerated or let happen again. None of my questions were answered by either of them, but shortly after this meeting the teacher was no longer working at the school. Somehow I was swindled into believing Betsey's concern and tears shed for my baby's experience were sincere. I was promised that communication would be improved and that I could trust them moving forward. WRONG MOVE. I should have pulled her out right then and never looked back. Since then, I have had numerous issues with the lack of communication, and strange bruises and injuries on my child while not getting an incident report. Now the most recent unfortunate event.
I should mention, I don't know this person through personal interaction and I don't have any ill will toward them.
I was told two weeks ago that someone had been hired there to teach. Someone that I know, and someone who is known to me and would cause a conflict of interest. Betsey confirms that my daughter will be in this person's care regularly. I tell her I'm not comfortable with that considering the very real chance that this person could mistreat my child because of the relationship. Apparently that's not a conflict of interest. Fine. If that were all, I would have pulled my daughter out and enrolled her elsewhere quietly. But unfortunately, that's not the major concern. This person has had child abuse allegations brought against her, a since dropped aggravated battery charge, dcf calls made about her alleged drug abuse (we actually were unaware of this until Betsey told me that this person told her this herself) and told my husband herself, that she was let go from another childcare facility for, "pushing a kid". Another parent has gone to school with this person and has chosen to remove their child from Bright Circle as well because of the lack of regard for the safety of her child, and how she was treated by Betsey when she raised concerns about this person as well.
All this being said, I believe that since Betsey has been made aware of these allegations, and whether substantiated or not, she is stripping parents of their right to make the best decisions to protect and care for their children. If someone knew of such serious allegat
