UPDATED 9:30 Oct. 9:
TCC NE Campus Children’s Center will close on Oct. 11 after a “deeply concerning” incident occurred that police are investigating.
TCC staff, students and members of the Tarrant County community are left scrambling to find alternative childcare services across the county due to the sudden closure.
On Tuesday, parents came to the Children’s Center for pickup and were informed that the center would be closing in three days. When parents asked for the reason, NE administration officials said that they could not comment at this time.
“We made the decision based on what we considered the school to no longer meet our TCC standards, and one of those standards included a personnel related matter,” TCC Vice Chancellor of communications and external affairs Reginald Gates said.
In a statement issued later from Chancellor Elva LeBlanc she said the center “did not align with the standards of respect, care and professionalism that TCC demands.”
“This is deeply concerning,” the statement read.
Parent Salina Sunga said the abrupt closure comes as a shock to her and other parents, especially since the Children’s Center just celebrated its 50th anniversary.
A TCC police log shows that an incident occurred Oct. 4 in the NFAB building, which houses the Children’s Center. The report categorized the incident as an “injury to a child/elderly/disabled, reckless bodily injury.” It said there is an active investigation.
Parents of the child who was involved in the incident told The Collegian they were troubled by the center’s closing. They were shown a report and a video of the incident and determined that it didn’t warrant the reaction from TCC.
“In my subjective judgment, it’s not even something I would consider a terminatable offense,” the father Jason Dziuk said.
Dziuk did not talk about what happened in the incident but said there is an investigation by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services child care investigations program. The DFPS-CCI investigates child abuse, neglect and exploitation in child care homes and centers.
“TCC police said they looked at it and they see nothing of concern that they would take any action on,” Dziuk said. “The investigator told me that explicitly before he asked me if I wanted to press charges. And then, of course, after reviewing it, it’s an ‘Absolutely not.’”
There is a years-long waiting list of families who have been seeking child care at the Children’s Center.
“I have no plan for my 1-and-a-half-year-old,” Jeanette Favela said. “Our plan was for him to start next year, and now I have to be on a search to look for a school that is up to par with, or hopefully on the same level as TCC, but I don’t think there is one.”
Hannah Boyd, a parent who uses the center, said she broke out in tears yesterday when NE Campus interim president Jan Clayton told parents the center was closing on Friday.
“It just it felt like, ‘Hey, sorry about you. You’re done,’” Boyd said. “And we just felt very thrown to the curb and it just was not handled at all, and we have no information. We don’t know why. We don’t know anything about it.”
Families are also concerned about the impact of this decision on teachers who they allege have been terminated and not given a severance package.
“I am heartbroken for these teachers and our kids who have grown to love each other, and they have learned so much with each other,” Boyd said. “That this is something we have to tell our toddlers: ‘Sorry, you can’t go there anymore.’ It’s heartbreaking.”
