The owner of an Antrim child care facility is fighting a Department of Health and Human Services administrative appeals unit decision to revoke her license.
Heidi Risman-Jones, director of Blossoms Early Learning Center, is planning to file a motion for reconsideration after the appeals unit denied her case April 5. Risman-Jones has until May 5 to answer the decision, which reaffirms the DHHS’ child care licensing unit’s revocation, issued on April 15, 2016.
The licensing unit’s 2016 decision outlined violations including the use of corporal punishment, shaming children for toileting accidents and force feeding.
“I’ve been a child care provider for about 28 years, no child has ever been hurt in my care,” said Risman-Jones in a phone interview Monday.
Risman-Jones said she was forced to close her child care center last Thursday. She directed further questions to email to let her attorney review her responses.
“(The revocation) created anxieties and fear among staff such as having a car watch the center — a reporter we presumed — for at least three days, and concerns staff reputations would be hurt,” said Risman-Jones in an email.
Risman-Jones said the license revocation from last April was “old news.”
“No complaint from the state has been issued since then. We have been open. The state clearly did not believe any child was in danger or they would have closed us. Child Protective Service was never called in,” she said.
The appeals unit decision outlined a handful of alleged incidents at Blossoms since the center opened in 2014, including two complaints in late 2014, which the licensing unit investigated before citing Risman-Jones with several violations (including inappropriate toilet training methods) and ordered her to put in a corrective action plan. The licensing unit later removed a corporal punishment finding from the 2014 complaint, but Risman-Jones had to amend her corrective action plan to include provisions such as “children would not be spoken to in a manner which was shaming or humiliating” and “that AB (Blossoms) staff would not use forms of aggressive contact, such as pulling a child, (or) forcefully holding a child down.”
In 2015, a former staff member named Khara Aird made a complaint to the licensing unit about Blossoms, leading to another investigation in December of 2015. The investigator found that Risman-Jones told a 4-year-old boy “that’s gross, that’s disgusting” whenever the boy would fail to use the toilet. The investigator also detailed interactions between Risman-Jones and a 2-year-old girl referred to as Kathy in the decision. Aird says Risman-Jones was trying to get Kathy to transition to the 3-year-old classroom and after Kathy refused, Risman-Jones “grabbed Kathy by her elbows and pulled (her) backwards about eight feet.”
“The state used inflammatory language to build their case. The child was not hurt rather brought to her mat. She was handled kindly and with respect,” said Risman-Jones in an email.
The investigation, which led to the decision to revoke Risman-Jones’ license, also mentions, among other alleged violations, an instance where Risman-Jones allegedly “force-fed” an 18-month-old girl, according to three witnesses.
Risman-Jones appealed the April 2016 decision. The appeal took until December to hear and meanwhile, Blossoms stayed open.
“The state in its decision chose not to consider my defense at all or the parent’s voices. During the two-day hearing, the state used more than 50 percent of the time leaving me about a third of time and not enough time to hear my witnesses,” Risman-Jones said.
The appeals unit’s decision lists five people testifying for the department and seven people for Risman-Jones in Dec. 21 and 22 hearings. The record was kept open to Feb. 1 for additional testimony or evidence, according to DHHS officials.
“I will appeal, because I want my reputation, which I am due. I have worked tirelessly and happily for many years with children and I have loved working with them even until last day of closing,” Risman-Jones said. “I deserve to have a clean reputation and I will fight for it. I devoted and dedicated my life to children. I will hold my head high knowing how many children I have helped and the importance of the job I did.”