Allegations of day care neglect are ‘completely false,’ owners say

The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office Child Protective Investigation Division swept into the No Limits Learning Academy in Bradenton over the summer and ordered a temporary closure of the day care to investigate allegations of neglect.

“I’m so scared of them, they have all the power,” said a tearful JoAnna Erickson, co-owner and board member of the nonprofit faith-based day care school.

Erickson is speaking out for the first time since being singled out in a 90-day no-contact order by CPI.

MCSO spokesman Dave Bristow confirmed the criminal investigation was closed within two weeks with no evidence of criminal wrongdoing and the school has since reopened, pending a Department of Children and Family Services administration hearing sometime early next year.

Erickson and her husband are pastors at the adjacent Church Without Limits, which owns the school, but are not employees of the school. Typically when CPI shuts down a facility, under Florida Statute 39.302, the director of the facility would be handed the no-contact order and the school would have to find a new director at its cost.

In this case, it was the director who made the allegations, and she resigned shortly before CIP investigated. The school can continue to operate on a provisional license for six months without a director, but Erickson said they are currently negotiating with someone for the position.

Steve Erickson, who said he was a police officer for 11 years before becoming a pastor, told his wife to let the investigators do their job and the truth would prevail. But with empty classrooms three months later, JoAnna Erickson said it was time to tell their side.

The accuser

The school’s former director, Katie Salyer, was employed in May of this year after answering an employment advertisement and resigned in July. Salyer filed the allegations with CPI the day she resigned, sending her resignation via text to Erickson. Staff say Salyer was a disgruntled employee.

Salyer did not return the Bradenton Herald’s requests for comment.

“She started mayhem from the second day,” said No Limits preschool teacher Margaret Duriavig. “Teachers were crying and threatening to quit almost immediately.”

Erickson said she received several complaints about Salyer.

“All the teachers say what a mess she is,” Erickson said. “All of our teachers said she would attack them if they disagreed with anything she said. In the short time she was here, board members had to sit her down and verbally counsel her several times over complaints about abusive behavior toward the teachers. Otherwise, she was the director and was hired to be in charge.”

The allegations

The primary allegation that drew in CPI was an incident on July 7 on the playground. A 6-year-old special needs child attempted to expose his or her private parts to another child. The behavior was stopped by school staff, documented and parents were notified of the incident. But when CPI asked to see the facility’s incident reports, they were missing from the file and the office’s security camera had somehow stopped working on the day they went missing.

A couple of days after CPI showed up, teachers say they found the reports buried inside Salyer’s desk. They were immediately sent to DCF and CPI.

“But by that time, it had already made us look bad,” Erickson said. “I saw the incident reports in our book on that Friday. (Salyer) was here Sunday and suddenly they were gone and the cameras weren’t working that day?”

Allegations made by Salyer also include sippy cups not being labeled, rotting lettuce in the fridge, a liquid medication without a label and children being left unattended in their classrooms while teachers allegedly slept or left for the restroom. She also questioned the teachers’ qualifications.

“We don’t ever have lettuce in our refrigerator and we don’t do liquid medicines here,” JoAnna Erickson said. “I asked the sheriff’s department to blow up the picture to find a child’s name on the label and they couldn’t find one. All of the photos she took were staged, and she was seen on a number of occasions walking around with a camera.”

Erickson said there are safeguards in place to ensure children aren’t left alone or that a teacher could be sleeping.

“There are two teachers in every classroom at all times,” she said. “Every single one of our 21 teachers are credentialed and six of them have the paperwork on file to be a director.”

The playground incident was what led to the school shutdown. Salyer’s written allegations claim this kind of thing happened all the time.

“It’s completely, 100 percent false,” Erickson said.

Duriavig called Salyer’s behavior “almost frightening, she’s so obsessive.”

All 21 of the school’s former teachers, four of whom remain on a volunteer basis, have documented testimony saying Salyer’s allegations are false. Though DCF will still hold the administrative hearing based on the CPI report, the criminal investigation into the playground incident that shut down the school was closed.

Why is this case still open?

According to DCF spokeswoman Natalie Harrell, the agency issued a revocation of the school’s license on Aug. 28 and a $1,600 fine, which is being appealed. The DCF action is based on the CPI report filed by Lisa Montera, who issued the temporary closure order on the school in July.

Harrell said DCF is the investigating agency, but carries forward the results of the CPI report into making a final determination.

“We do not conduct child protection investigations in Manatee County. Those are all conducted by the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office Child Protection Investigation Division,” Harrell said. “They were the ones who initiated the 90-day no-contact order.”

Erickson has filed a formal complaint with MCSO professional standards against Montera and her supervisor, disputing the report.

The Bradenton Herald requested to interview Montera. Bristow responded in an email Friday, saying only, “We are investigating it like we do all complaints.”

The Ericksons say they are concerned about the negative public perception that has been created over one person’s allegations and the “innocent incident” on the playground that was “blown way out of proportion.”

The future

The No Limits Learning Academy is a nonprofit entity. Its proceeds fund the church’s larger global mission, including Bible schools in Africa and an orphanage in India where the Ericksons buy children out of the sex slave industry to get them into a safe place.

The school was scheduled to have 110 children enrolled in August before it was shut down. Seven families immediately returned when the temporary closure was lifted. Many more pledge to return when the situation is resolved.

“The parents are really supporting us,” Jo Anna Erickson said. “There’s been so much love and support from them. I wouldn’t even ask our parents to come back right now until this over. I don’t want them in the middle of this fight. This is such a big fight, but I also know that we’ve done nothing wrong.”

Arika Manapat is one of those parents supporting the Ericksons.

“I had an amazing experience from start to finish and I was dumbfounded when all this happened,” Manapat said. “My daughter had a bad seizure before I went there and they really made me feel like I could go back to work. I’m a single mom and they bent over backwards to accommodate me. They always looked out for her and would check in with me at home to make sure I was OK. The care was exceptional.”

Manapat continues to recommend No Limits to parents she knows and said she will return to the school. So will Lisa Beckwith.

“I think they are wonderful, very caring people, both the owners and the staff,” Beckwith said. “I was really upset when they had to close. It was hard not only for us parents but finding the children new places. I will continue to recommend them and will be going back. I thought the closure was abrupt and without reason and I’m upset at the lack of information provided to the parents by the county. My son was very happy there. They were like family to us.”

This story was originally published October 27, 2017 at 5:53 PM with the headline "Allegations of day care neglect are ‘completely false,’ owners say."