MIDDLETOWN, Conn. — A former teacher at the Town & Country Early Learning Centers in Middletown, who was arrested in late February for allegedly tossing a two-year-old child, faces more charges, according to Middletown police.
Kristie Kovarcik, 48, turned herself into Middletown police on Friday and is charged with three counts of risk of injury to a minor and three counts of second-degree reckless endangerment. Police say she was held in lieu of a $30,000 bond and appeared in Middlesex Superior Court on Friday.
Omina Rahman, 32, another former teacher at the early learning center, was arrested on Aug. 22 and charged with risk of injury to a minor and reckless endangerment in the second degree. She appeared in Middlesex Superior Court on Aug. 22, police say.
After continuing an investigation that began on Jan. 12, the Middletown Police Department’s Special Investigations Unit discovered that there were several occasions when Kovarcik and Rahman were observed through surveillance video mishandling other two-year-old children in their care.
After Kovarcik’s initial arrest, an arrest warrant notes that the child she allegedly threw on Jan. 12 hit their head on the wall as they landed and ended up with a bruise above the eye. On the day of the event, the daycare’s director told Middletown police that she heard yelling and a loud thud from Kovarcik’s classroom.
After viewing the assault on surveillance footage, the director went to the classroom and found the victim crying. Kovarcik was then fired, the arrest warrant states. The victim’s guardians were notified and chose to file charges against Kovarcik. The state’s Department of Children and families was notified as well.
“Upon observing the incident involving Ms. Kovarcik on our internal camera monitoring system, we immediately initiated an internal investigation, notified the appropriate sate authorities and terminated the employee,” the daycare said in a statement earlier this year.
The statement continued to note that: “Our safety and training protocols are amongst the strictest in our industry, and we treat any such incident with the utmost seriousness. The safety and protection of the children in our care is always our top priority.”
FOX61 reported in March that Attorney Lance Coughlin was representing the family of the victim. At the time, he said there is a “hard drive containing digital video surveillance,” which was turned over to the police.
Investigators say this isn’t the first time Kovarcik allegedly mishandled children. Footage from January shows her allegedly lifting a child out of a chair by the shirt, dropping them to the ground and kicking them, according to the arrest warrant. The arrest warrant also accuses Kovarcik of pushing down on a child’s chest to force them to lie down during nap time on the same day, as was reportedly seen on surveillance footage.
Investigators also pointed out footage from November 2023 that showed Kovarcik allegedly shoving students.
When Kovarcik was interviewed, investigators said she told them she lost her cool and that handling the behaviors of the children had been difficult for her. She also noted the classroom was “chaotic” and that she didn’t have the support of her employers, according to investigators.
Another staff member was seen in surveillance footage lifting a child from a table and tossing them to the ground; Kovarcik's initial arrest warrant says the child fell onto their back and hit their head on the concrete. The identity of this employee was not released.
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Dalton Zbierski is a digital content producer and writer at FOX61 News. He can be reached at dzbierski@FOX61.com.
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