Two parents have filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the negligence of Penn State and child care provider Bright Horizons led to the sexual abuse of their five-year-old son, according to Pennsylvania Record.
John and Jill Doe filed the suit on behalf of their son Jack Doe, who allegedly faced two years of sexual abuse at Creative Beginnings Child Care Center in Reading, Pa. by a former assistant director of the facility.
From June 2017 to August 2019, the suit alleges Andrew McCollin molested Jack Doe “on a serial and repeated basis” at Creative Beginnings, according to Pennsylvania Record.
Before McCollin worked at Creative Beginnings, the suit says he worked at a Penn State Behrend daycare center.
Last August, McCollin was suspended from his duties at Creative Beginnings and was arrested and charged with aggravated indecent assault, corrupting minors and endangering the welfare of a child.
McCollin worked at several other daycare centers — including the Penn State Behrend center — prior to working at Creative Beginnings, according to the suit.
The suit alleges that he first sexually abused a four-year-old girl at a Bloomsburg daycare center in 2011. The center did not conduct an investigation into the incident, and McCollin was not terminated or disciplined from his position, according to Pennsylvania Record.
Following the 2011 allegations, McCollin was transferred to Penn State Behrend’s daycare center in 2013.
Former Penn State football player Isaiah Humphries alleges he was hazed and harassed by the team’s upperclassmen — and the coaching staff, including head coach James Franklin, did nothing to stop the upperclassmen’s actions when Humphries reported it.
In October 2014, three-month-old Jack Doe was enrolled in Creative Beginnings.
McCollin was transferred to Creative Beginnings as the center’s assistant director in June 2017. Despite numerous reports of sexual abuse, he oversaw 40 preschool-aged children in an unsupervised environment, according to Pennsylvania Record.
Inspections by the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services in the ensuing years allegedly showed that Penn State Behrend and Creative Beginnings daycare facilities violated multiple state childcare regulations, which were not mentioned to the families.
Filed in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas, the lawsuit names Penn State, Bright Horizons, Creative Beginnings Child Care and Hildebrandt Learning Centers as defendants.
Attorney Tom Kline, who is representing the Doe family, issued a statement regarding the lawsuit.
“This lawsuit seeks to hold Bright Horizons and Penn State accountable for their enabling of a pedophile who repeatedly sexually abused and assaulted a five-year-old boy who is now forever scarred,” Kline said. “The complaint catalogs many failures by Bright Horizons and Penn State over a span of years that allowed a pedophile to remain in the high ranks of their daycare center resulting in repeated assaults against a helpless child.”