The operators of Starboard Academy stonewalled, dissembled, and delayed efforts by a state agency to investigate allegations of misconduct at the private Plymouth school for young children, according to a report obtained by the Plymouth Independent.
School leaders did almost nothing when a male teacher was accused of repeatedly touching a female colleague in front of children and sending explicit photos of his genitals to co-workers, the report alleges.
“The program was less than forthcoming during the investigation and provided countless misleading and false statements…” wrote the Department of Early Education and Care investigator in the report, which the Independent obtained through a public information request.
A lawyer for the privately owned Starboard, which is in the Plymouth Industrial Park, did not return emails seeking comment. Calls to Starboard from a reporter’s phone were blocked and went unanswered.
Several days later, the school issued a statement asserting that the report wasn’t public and that it wouldn’t comment until it is.
“All EEC investigation reports are made public only after EEC has finalized the reports per its policy and regulations and are then posted on the school’s page on the EEC website,” it said.
“We are unaware of any EEC reports being recently made public,” the statement continued. “If there is another report issued, we will provide our responses at that time.”
It is clear that the school’s owner — Tonya Stump — strongly objected to its findings. School leaders called the report (and a previous one) “inaccurate” and “failed to meet regulatory standards,” the investigator wrote. They wanted a lawyer present when they met with the investigator, the report said.
Just months ago, the state investigated the Plymouth preschool program for 160 infants and young children. The new report is more damning than the last one, issued in May, though it doesn’t specifically conclude the school abused or neglected children.
In May, EEC, which oversees 9,000 programs for young children across the state, found neglect after investigating allegations from parents that a former teacher mistreated at least one toddler in her care.
The teacher was heard telling children at naptime to “lay the f— down,” the parents alleged, citing a report from another teacher at the school. Children were often left in tears, the parents alleged.
The state launched a separate investigation in April after a Starboard worker reported seeing the teacher pick up a toddler lying awake on a nap cot and slam the child down face first. The child let out a huge screech and began to cry, the witness told investigators, the earlier report said.
After that EEC report was released, three families — one from Plymouth and two from Kingston – filed lawsuits, charging that the now former Starboard teacher engaged in “abusive and neglectful misconduct” toward a toddler in her care.
The cases are pending in Plymouth Superior Court. A hearing is scheduled for Jan. 16.
Starboard’s lawyers have filed a motion to strike from the families’ lawsuits any reference to “abuse,” pointing out that the state report cited “neglect” but did not specifically find “abuse.”
The suits contain “scandalous, irrelevant and untrue accusations” and “create the false impression that state regulators made legitimate factual findings of abuse, which they did not…” their motion says.
The families’ lawyers, Jeff Simons, Matthew Fogelman and Jillian Dahrooge of Fogelman Law, defended the use of the word “abuse,” saying that EEC’s report and the allegations describe conduct that is “entirely consistent with common definitions of abuse. “
Fogelman said he and his team are “in receipt of the latest EEC investigative report and are highly concerned about the contents. We will be updating our court papers accordingly,” he said.
The new report, issued in October, alleges that a week before the previous investigator conducted an exit interview with the program’s operators in May, another incident had taken place. The school should have told the investigator but did not, the report said.
A teacher had lifted a child by a bicep, which should have been reported to state agencies, the report said. School officials “did not view this as abuse or neglect” but the investigator said the program cannot make that determination. The unidentified teacher resigned, the report said.
The school also failed to adequately investigate the allegations that a teacher, referred to in the report as Educator Z, allegedly grabbed a co-worker’s buttocks daily while they were changing babies’ diapers. (Though the teacher’s gender is not mentioned in the report, three people familiar with the allegations said he is male and his alleged victim was female.
Educator Z also sent unsolicited genital pictures to a female co-worker via Snapchat, the investigator was told.
Though Educator Z’s behaviors were “common knowledge to the leadership team,” the investigator wrote, the school conducted only a perfunctory internal investigation, which was wrapped up in a day. The allegations were dismissed as rumor, the report said.
It is unclear whether that teacher is still working at Starboard.
Educator Z denied the allegations in an interview with the investigator.
The school’s operators tried to hide their internal investigation from the EEC, the report alleged.
In early June when the investigator asked about any probes into sexual harassment at Starboard, Stump said there weren’t any, the report said.
In a follow-up meeting in July, the investigator asked again if there were “any internal investigations conducted in the past year for abuse, neglect, sexual abuse, harassment and/or sexual harassment implicating Educator Z.”
Stump responded: “Not that I know of with children,” the report said.
“After several redirections,” the investigator wrote, Stump mentioned an incident with Educator Z. “It was all a rumor that was not true,” she said.
Finally, in late July, Stump provided documents acknowledging “two matters involving Educator Z that had not been previously disclosed,” the report said.
Stump seemed more concerned about Educator Z’s feelings than those of any alleged victims or educators who spoke out about the alleged behavior, the investigator wrote.
“This lack of empathy and evidence gathering by the leadership team led educators to warn one another about Educator Z’s alleged unwarranted actions toward multiple individuals who were or are still associated with the program,” the report said.
The alleged perpetrator was supported while the teachers who spoke out were intimidated or subjected to “gaslighting,” the report said.
The investigator found the program violated several state regulations when it failed to notify the state when a child was picked up by “the biceps” when it issued false statements and failed to conduct comprehensive internal investigations.
It did not conclude that the unnamed teacher had touched a co-worker or sent genital photos but said his alleged grabbing of a co-worker in front of children “did not support the children or adults in the classroom. Educator Z potentially subjected young children to learning the art of misguided touching,” the report concluded.
The investigator called working with Starboard “extremely challenging” and said school leaders asked to add or change material in the report. They also appealed findings “which was well within their right,” the investigator wrote.
But the investigator refused to alter the report, writing that “EEC investigators cannot create narratives to appease programs. “
“Investigators were an unbiased vessel used to hold programs accountable through citations or technical assistance to ensure the health and safety of the children enrolled in the program,” the investigator wrote.
“The overarching goal was for this investigator and program to work alongside one another; however, this task was unsuccessful.”
The school is required to file corrective action plans with EEC.
On Starboard’s website, Stump who runs the school with her daughter Sydney, describes it as providing “the ultimate quality of care to our millennial families.”
The school is licensed for 161 infants, toddler, preschool and school aged children, with tuition ranging from $395 to $495 a week, as of June.
It is one of four schools owned by Stump. Two others are on Cape Cod and the fourth is in Marshfield. The Plymouth location is described on its website as a state of the art 12,000-square-foot facility with indoor and outdoor playgrounds, a garden, library and media room, and art and science studio and an “enchanted dramatic play area.”
“We (Stump and her daughter) both have an enormous passion and love for children. We believe quality comes from within the community, which is why we have surrounded ourselves with a leading team of management, teachers and industry professionals,” the website says.
The school’s “experienced degreed teachers give lots of love and attention to build self-confidence and a positive self-image,” the website says.
Andrea Estes can be reached at andrea@plymouthindependent.org.