Business & Tech

Another Report of Abuse at a Minnieland Academy Daycare

Company has centers throughout Virginia, including Leesburg and Ashburn; abuse reports are from Lorton and Woodbridge.

Less than a week after allegations surfaced of abused toddlers at the Minnieland Academy daycare center in Woodbridge, a Lorton mother has come forward to say her child was also abused at Minnieland's Lorton facility.

"I was horrified. I cried all day at work," Stella Staine told USA9 after she said she found out her 2-year old son was mistreated at the Lorton Minnieland.

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Staine said she witnessed a different child being thrown by a staff member while she was at the daycare. Later, she said, she learned the Virginia Department of Social Services had reports that her son was also abused and hit.

Allegations that workers at a Woodbridge daycare center abused toddlers "for their own enjoyment" have prompted a criminal investigation by Prince William County police.

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The incidents in Woodbridge occurred over a six-month period at the Minnieland Academy at the Glen in the 4200 block of Prince William Parkway, according to The Washington Post, which cited an inspection report by the Virginia Department of Social Services.

violation summary released by the department outlines abusive behaviors from February through August, according toInsideNoVa.com. The children, ages 17 months to 24 months, were “clearly in distress in the classroom and although this distress was observed by several staff,” the summary says, but no one reported the abuse until August.

The Woodbridge and Lorton facilities are part of a chain of day-care centers that was founded in 1972 and has dozens of facilities in Prince William, Stafford, Loudoun and Fairfax counties, Fredericksburg and Richmond, according to the company's website.


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