Colorado Day Care Worker Cleared of Abuse Charges After Mundane Incident

Colorado Day Care Worker Cleared of Abuse Charges After Mundane Incident

This is such an absurd case. The woman at the center of it didn’t even do anything. It’s like the daycare scare of the 1990s.

Reason reports:

Court Clears Colorado Day Care Worker Accused of Child Abuse After Mundane Incident

Amy Lovato, the Colorado day care worker accused of child abuse after a boy in her class allegedly touched a female classmate’s butt, has been found not guilty of the charges.

It took the six-person jury just two hours to render its verdict after a two-day trial. Lovato says she cried after hearing the verdict.

“All I’ve been able to see for a little while was this trial,” she says.

The Chaffee County day care center where Lovato worked has been closed since January 24, according to The Colorado Sun. On that day, half a dozen armed sheriff’s deputies raided the place, telling all the children’s parents to come to pick up their kids immediately—without explaining why. Terrified parents raced over and only later found out that the crime involved a 5-year-old and two toddlers.

Lovato, the director of the nonprofit running the school, had been filling in for an absent teacher in January. After a child wet his blanket during nap time, she briefly left the room to throw it in the wash.

She returned to find the kids pretending to be kitty cats in the “dramatic play area,” she says. They were pretending to fill bowls of water for the cats, and petting them. A 3-year-old girl pretending to be a cat went to get changed and mentioned to another teacher that one of her male classmates had touched her.

The next day, a teacher saw that same boy repeat this action. (A local news outlet initially reported that the boy had pulled down the classmate’s pants as well, but according to Lovato, this was false.)

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