photo by: University of Kansas

An aeria photo shows Hilltop's main campus along Ousdahl Road in Lawrence.

Staffing is in flux at Lawrence’s Hilltop Child Development Center in the wake of findings of child abuse and ongoing state investigations at the KU-operated center.

Investigators with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment have found that a teacher at Hilltop’s main campus location “would humiliate children by spraying them with a squirt bottle to have them stop talking,” according to records on KDHE’s child care licensing website.

That incident recently was the subject of a staff meeting at Hilltop, where a supervisor berated staff members, saying that Hilltop was “no longer the organization it was.”

“Every person in this room will need to recognize why that is not OK,” Executive Director Cori Berg said, according to an audio recording of the meeting obtained by the Journal-World. “Children are not pets.”

KDHE investigators also found that a staff member at Hilltop’s relatively new location on KU’s West Campus engaged in corporal punishment of a child by forcefully grabbing children in some instances, and in others pulling chairs out from beneath them so that the students fell to the floor, according to records on KDHE’s child care licensing website.

In another instance, a staff member at the West facility was found to have engaged in verbal abuse by yelling at students, including saying things like: “You are going to sit there while we all watch you cry,” according to the KDHE report.

It is not clear from the complaint whether these two incidents at the West facility both involved the same staff member.

Parents of children who attend Hilltop recently received a letter from KU and Hilltop leaders notifying them that state officials had substantiated reports of child abuse at Hilltop. The letter said Hilltop notified parents this winter that complaints of abuse had been made to the state, and that Hilltop officials could now report that the allegations were found to be true. The letter contained no details of the abuse, but the publicly available KDHE reports provided descriptions of the incidents. The letter also cited only the West facility, despite KDHE also substantiating abuse allegations at Hilltop’s main campus location, 1652 Ousdahl Road.

“Those allegations were substantiated, and the teacher is no longer employed with Hilltop,” the undated letter from Casey Fraites-Chapes, president of the Hilltop Board of Directors and Jennifer Wamelink, associate vice provost for student affairs at KU, said. “These events are deeply concerning and painful for our community.

“We recognize the trust you place in us and want to be clear: child safety and care is not negotiable. We continue to take this situation with the utmost seriousness.”

The letter went on to say that a program director has suddenly left the employment of Hilltop West facility, which is Hilltop’s newest center that is part of KU’s efforts to turn its West Campus into a live, work and play commercial and residential development.

“We know sudden transitions like this are challenging,” the letter states. “We remain focused on building a staff team that is unified in our mission and fully committed to creating a safe, nurturing and academically rich experience for every child.”

More issues may be on the horizon, however, for the center, which serves a range of children from infants to grade school-aged students. According to a review of the public documents on the KDHE site, there are at least nine investigations by KDHE that currently are ongoing between Hilltop’s two facilities. Three investigations remain open at the Hilltop West facility, while six remain open at the Hilltop’s main campus center.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.