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CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Charleston Attorney Michael Carey says he is devoting all of his efforts moving forward to bring justice to eight families filing for abuse that has allegedly occurred to their children at a Cross Lanes daycare center.
This follows the temporary shutdown and investigation into the Cross Lanes Child Care and Learning Center amid one of its workers getting indicted on abuse charges.
The West Virginia Department of Human Services placed the childcare facility on provisional license status and reduced the facility’s capacity to zero after a former employee, Amber Seiler, 29, of Kenova was charged with two counts of misdemeanor battery in addition to a felony count of battery and assault of a disabled child.
Seiler has been accused of smacking children, beating them, and spitting on at least one 4-year-old child.
Carey held a press conference Monday regarding the lawsuits the eight families so far have filed against the daycare center. He said accountability in the matter is key.
“It’s going to be our goal to make sure that daycare and the workers there are being held accountable for their actions, held accountable for the emotional and physical abuse that has occurred at the hands of these workers to our most vulnerable children,” Carey said.
All of the eight families are now pushing for the facility to be permanently shutdown not just temporarily.
Ashley Shaffer is the mother of one of the children at the facility who had faced abuse in the hands of Seiler.
After Shaffer had initially posted an audio recording of the abuse taking place in Seiler’s classroom, it sparked the attention and support of close to 70,000 people on Facebook and resulted in multiple other parents and guardians coming forward with allegations.
Shaffer said she started to become concerned for her daughter’s safety at the facility leading up to her daughters’ claims of abuse when she came home one day with a black eye that Shaffer knows her daughter didn’t have prior to going to daycare that day.
“There was incident prior around June 24th when my daughter came home with a black eye and I messaged the center and asked them what happened, and all Amy told me was that her teacher said she had a good day at school that day and she played with her friend,” Shaffer said.
Shaffer and the other parents filing lawsuits claim Amy Williams, the director of the daycare should be held just as accountable as Seiler for the abuse, because she at least had to know somewhat that it was going on at her facility, and it was consistently left unreported as Williams turned a blind eye.
Bethany Byrd is the mother one of the children with disabilities who Seiler was abusing. She said her daughter had been attending the daycare for over a year before all of this came out as it was the last thing she ever expected at first.
“Of course, as a parent you’re not going to expect your child to go through something like this, you send them to the daycare with the presumption of safety and that was not met,” said Byrd.
She said it has become a nightmare of a situation to have to face.
“She could not tell me that this was happening to her, so it’s a mothers’ worst nightmare, especially when your child can’t communicate to you that they’re being abused,” Byrd said.
Deryl Feaster is the guardian and grandfather of the 4-year-old girl Ava, who Seiler spit on. He said he was out of town for work when the video was posted to social media and flew back immediately.
Feaster said it’s unfathomable until it actually happens to your child.
“It’s just heartbreaking when you send your children to some place you think they’re going to be safe and that they’re going to be cared for and loved just like you do when you have them, and then something like this comes out and it’s just devastating,” said Feaster.
Tiffany Myers, a mother of a son who was attending the facility and a former employee who was fired for addressing the abuse was also at Monday’s press conference and is filing a lawsuit as well.
There was a similar incident that had occurred at the facility in 2021. After that situation was reported and a lawsuit took place, the daycare center was cleared of any instances of abuse.
Carey said the “see something, say something” mantra he kept reiterating Monday is crucial to accountability and the only way this abuse can be stopped.
“If you see something and don’t say anything, then none of us are going to be here, none of us are going to know that a child is being abused, and in this case, some of these children were non-verbal special needs, so they’re not able to speak, we’re the ones providing a voice for the voiceless, and we’re going to make sure it stops,” Carey said.
Carey said the first lawsuit into the matter was filed Monday and has been assigned to Kanawha County Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey. He said several other complaints will be filed in the next coming weeks.
Seiler is currently being held at South Central Regional Jail on a $50,000 cash or surety bond in addition to two bonds of $1,500 cash or surety for the misdemeanors. If she were to post bond she would have to be on home confinement and have no contact with minors.
Her preliminary hearing is scheduled for November 6 at 1 p.m. The investigation is ongoing.