Day care's license suspended after operator accused of abuse. Woman's lawyer, Alcalar, 31 - denies allegations that include slapping an infant, putting pepper on one child's thumb and feeding hot sauce to another baby.

By Claire Osborn
AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Updated: 11:37 p.m. Thursday, April 1, 2010
Published: 10:15 p.m. Thursday, April 1, 2010

HUTTO — A Hutto day care operator is accused of abusing children by slapping an infant, throwing food on the floor for infants to eat, feeding hot sauce to a baby and covering an infant's face with a towel, according to an affidavit issued by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.

The state on Tuesday suspended the license of Hippo Academy, which had allowed owner Jeanie Alcalar of Thrall to care for 22 children, including nine infants.

An attorney for Alcalar said she is a victim of false accusations by an employee she threatened to fire.

A previous, separate investigation in February , one of three since the day care opened in 2008, may have been started after Alcalar appeared on the TLC television show "Toddlers and Tiaras," which depicts the world of child beauty pageants, attorney Howard Fomby said Thursday.

An excerpt of the Feb. 17 episode of the show posted on the Internet shows Alcalar yanking her 5-year-old daughter, a contestant in a pageant, off the floor as the girl protests that she doesn't want her hair done. People who had seen previews of the show made death threats against Alcalar, Fomby said.

He said that he had not seen the video but that Alcalar is a "loving mother."

The television show had nothing to do with the February investigation, said Chris Van Deusen, a Texas Department of Child Protective Services spokesman.

A representative from the agency went to the Hutto day care Tuesday for an inspection and saw black pepper on an infant's sheet in a crib, the affidavit said. Alcalar said the infant must have brought it in on her shoes from the outside, according to the affidavit.

When the representative found no pepper on the shoes, Alcalar said she had cleaned them, the affidavit said. Alcalar then said she had had black pepper on her lunch and it must have fallen onto her clothes and then into the crib, according to the affidavit.

Putting pepper on an infant's thumb is a violation of state minimum standards for day cares and is risky because it could cause a child to choke or have breathing problems, the affidavit said.

"The preponderance of evidence supports a finding that Ms. Alcalar used pepper on the infant as a form of punishment," according to the affidavit.

There was also evidence that Alcalar put a cloth over the face of a 9-week-old crying infant and put Cheetos or crackers in the mouth of the same child, which caused a choking hazard, the affidavit said.

Alcalar has denied all the allegations, according to the affidavit.

Fomby said he has not been allowed to see any of the evidence against Alcalar.

Fomby said Alcalar, 31, met late last week with three employees who oversaw infant care and threatened to terminate them because they were not being "nice enough" to the babies. One of those employees made a complaint Tuesday to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, Fomby said.

"Jeanie is very nurturing and really loves the babies," he said.

State officials will not reveal who made the complaint, Van Deusen said.

The state plans to investigate additional allegations against Alcalar, including that she slapped an infant on the cheek so hard the infant cried, that she placed hot sauce mixed with water in infant bottles and that she also spoon-fed hot sauce to an infant, the affidavit said.

There was no hot sauce at the day care, Fomby said. "It's ludicrous to believe there was, because what are you accomplishing to make a child sick?" he asked.

He also said the state investigator only talked to the three employees who had been threatened by Alcalar. Van Deusen said that was not true.

Alcalar opened the center in October 2008, Van Deusen said. The state agency has conducted investigations of the day care three times, in September, January and February, because of complaints, he said.

Family and Protective Services inspectors found several high-risk violations at the day care this year, including not enough staff caring for infants and an 11-month-old left facedown in a crib during nap time, Van Deusen said.

Van Deusen said the day care has appealed the findings in the February investigation.

Alcalar had to pass a criminal background check to open the day care as well as another background check that Family and Protective Services does that looks for any history of child abuse and negligence, Van Deusen said.

From Sept. 1, 2008, to Aug. 31, 2009, the state suspended seven day care permits, revoked 20 permits and denied 26 permits in Texas, Van Deusen said.

Hutto police are also investigating, said Lt. Dwain Jones. Police had received no prior complaints about the day care, he said.

Fomby said he told Alcalar and her husband, who is a construction worker, to go into seclusion Tuesday after she received more death threats when the day care was closed.

Alcalar had to remove her son and daughter from school after receiving a call from a pay phone from someone who had threatened to kidnap her son from his elementary school, Fomby said.

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I am starting to wonder if we can trust anyone.This is exactly why i am a stay at home mom!!

You're lucky you can afford to stay at home. All the mom's did when I was growing up. Life seemed so much simpler then.

I think this is another reason why today's children are falling away from any kind of reality. The parent's are too busy working to know what they are really doing. I understand this even though I think it's so damned sad. Between the economy and all the information that the kids have access to, it's just too much for them to deal with.