According to police, an Ohio woman who works at a day care for young children allegedly wrapped “painter’s tape” around a 1-year-old girl’s eyes, feet, and hands, binding her arms behind her back and both legs together, before leaving the child “face down under a blanket unattended.”
Katelyn Strohacker, 23, is charged with child endangerment for an incident on July 21 at Over the Rainbow Children’s Center in Pataskala, according to a criminal complaint filed in Licking County last week.
Strohacker is accused of using painter’s tape to “administer corporal punishment or other physical disciplinary measure” and “physically restrain the child in a cruel manner,” according to the complaint. On August 7, the girl’s mother contacted police, claiming she had been contacted by Jamie Schoelkopf, the director of the day care facility, about the alleged incident.
Strohacker “had bound and left [her daughter] in a bed for an hour” that day, according to the mother, after wrapping her in tape. According to the investigation, Strohacker allegedly taped painter’s tape over the child’s eyes, her hands behind her back, and the girl’s feet together before leaving her face down under the blanket.
“The defendant was subsequently interviewed and admitted to doing this and [to] doing this on more than one occasion,” according to the charge.
Strohacker was arrested and eventually released on a $50,000 surety bond. She is not allowed to have any unsupervised contact with minors and is scheduled to appear at a preliminary hearing on August 28.
The Over the Rainbow Children’s Center did not respond to Law&Crime’s request for comment on Thursday. It told local CBS affiliate WBNS that safety was its “top priority,” according to the outlet.
“We became aware of an incident with a former employee,” the day care said. “As a result of the incident, both the employee and the supervisor were terminated.” We have contacted the child’s family and reported the incident to the authorities.
