Clearwater preschool worker accused of child abuse faces judge
CLEARWATER, Fla. - A former employee of a preschool in Clearwater is facing some disturbing allegations.
Noel Savoy, 56, is charged with nine counts of child abuse, stemming from incidents involving five victims all around one-year-old at Kid City USA preschool and daycare, the Clearwater Police Department said.
Wednesday, a judge set her bond at $45,000 total – $5,000 for each count. The judge also said she can’t have any contact with the victims or anyone under the age of 18, other than her children, if she has any. It wasn’t determined in court whether she had any children of her own.
Clearwater police said officers were called to the preschool located on McMullen Booth Road on Feb. 14 after an employee saw Savoy handling children in a rough manner. Officers arrested Savoy on Tuesday. Police said she admitted to detectives that her actions were wrong and could’ve resulted in injuring the children.
According to her arrest affidavit, the center’s security cameras show Savoy "yanking" infants in and out of cribs by their arms, then carrying and dragging the infants by only their arms.
The court documents also allege Savoy pushed a one-year-old for no reason, knocking her to the floor. She also allegedly pulled a one-year-old’s skirt, knocking her to the floor and forcing the child into a seated position, the affidavit said.
The affidavit continues, saying Savoy slammed a nine-month-old into a seated position on the floor. Savoy, according to the court documents, also stepped on an infant’s hand and while the child tried to free his hand, Savoy knocked him over with her foot and then pulled him off the ground by his arm.
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"We need to be our kids’ advocates, and we need to listen to them," Dr. Wendy Rice, a third-party child psychologist who also specializes in parenting, said.
"If your child comes home from daycare and has something to say about how he or she is being treated or a friend, I would first say, ‘I believe you. Thank you so much for telling me,’ and then maybe name their feeling … ‘that must have been scary,’ or, ‘that was brave of you to tell me.’ Something like that and say, ‘I'd love to hear more about what happened’ and really give them your attention. Put your phone down and just listen and believe them," Dr. Rice said.
She said it’s also important to pay attention to your child’s body language, especially if they can’t communicate with you.
"Of course, you want to look for bruises, look for discomfort. If you have normally a cuddly child who's now pushing you away or is flinching, you know, if there's any change in your child," she said.
Dr. Rice said it’s also important to do as much research on the facility and its employees as you can.
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"I think we want the sort of the equivalent of nanny cams as much as possible … We want to know what quality control the daycares do. What is the level of qualifications of their employees? How does supervision work? How many adults are in a room with the babies and children at one time? I think those are some questions that you ask because you're dealing with little kids who mostly aren't going to be able to report anything, especially in this case it sounds like they’re infants, preverbal," Dr. Rice said.
Savoy was fired from the center in February. She doesn’t have any criminal history, and she had worked in other child care facilities previously. Clearwater Police are still investigating the incidents.
When FOX 13 knocked on Kid City USA’s door on Wednesday, no one answered. When we called, we were hung up on.
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