A former employee at a Hatboro daycare injured a child with special needs by slamming him, hard, into a chair and, later, onto the floor, Montgomery County prosecutors said Wednesday.
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Thomas Coleman, 42, has been charged with endangering the welfare of a child and simple assault in connection with the March 23 incident involving a 4-year-old boy at KinderCare on Warminster Road.
Coleman remained in custody Wednesday, in lieu of $2,5000 bail. His attorney, Stephen Jones, did not return a request for comment.
Coleman, of Holland, had been the subject of two previous investigations of his conduct toward children at KinderCare, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest. Those incidents involved him “putting a kid down on a mat too hard and yelling at students,” the affidavit said.
Administrators at KinderCare placed Coleman on leave after the earlier incidents, the affidavit said, but they allowed him to return to work after completing training.
After the latest incident, however, he was fired, the affidavit said.
KinderCare’s director, Ashley Ross, did not return a request for comment Wednesday.
Hatboro police learned of the alleged assault when the boy’s parents contacted them in March, the affidavit said.
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The mother said another parent had seen Coleman pick up her son, who is autistic, by his arms and roughly place him in a chair, hitting the boy’s neck on the back of the chair, and then forcefully push the chair into a nearby desk, the affidavit said.
The boy then got out of his seat and walked to a carpeted area of the room, according to the parent who witnessed the assault. Coleman, appearing frustrated, than grabbed the boy by his chin and slammed him down onto the floor, the parent said.
When the boy’s mother picked him up from daycare, she said she noticed scratches and marks on his neck. Coleman told her the injuries were self-inflicted, but would not provide more details, the affidavit said.
Later, the woman had her son examined by a chiropractor, who told her the boy’s hip were out of alignment.
Coleman is scheduled to appear before a district judge for a preliminary hearing on July 2.
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