KY day care forced kids to spit on 3-year-old as punishment, lawsuit says
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Families sue UK King’s Daughters Child Development Center over abuse.
- CCTV and investigator interviews substantiate spitting, forced punishments.
- State regulators flagged late reporting; staff fired or given coaching.
Small children were lined up at an Ashland child care center last year and ordered to spit on a 3-year-old classmate while a teacher held him down, according to a lawsuit filed this month in Boyd Circuit Court.
The episode was so disturbing that a police detective initially warned the boy’s mother not to watch a video of it, “explaining that it was too graphic,” according to the suit.
Two families suing the UK King’s Daughters Child Development Center allege that staff witnessed this and other child abuse but failed to report it until an insider threatened to tell state regulators earlier this year.
Apart from the spitting incident, the suit alleges that children at the child care center were punished by being forced to stand against a wall while their classmates and staff pelted them with balls.
“These acts are unspeakable,” Kathryn Neill and Alicia Smith of Boyd County argue in their suit, filed Dec. 1 on behalf of themselves and their sons. “A child care facility should be a safe space for children. Defendants have breached this universally agreed upon principle without remorse.”
The spitting incident was confirmed in a report issued last March 24 by the Office of Inspector General at the Kentucky Health and Family Services Cabinet, which regulates child care. Interviews and footage from closed-circuit television in the building substantiated the allegations, investigators wrote.
The teacher who held down the boy was fired. Several other employees either were fired or given “advanced coaching” for failing to report the abuse, investigators wrote. A new child care director was hired and told to conduct regular tours of the classrooms to see what’s going on, investigators wrote.
Boyd County Sheriff Jamie Reihs told the Herald-Leader this week that a pending criminal investigation of the alleged abuse has been referred to Commonwealth’s Attorney Rhonda Copley, who did not return a call seeking comment.
The child care center referred questions to UK King’s Daughters Medical Center, which oversees it.
“UK King’s Daughters Medical Center is unable to comment on pending legal matters,” said King’s Daughters spokesman Tom Dearing.
“However,” Dearing said, “the health and safety of the children at the Child Development Center remain our top priority.”
Failing to report abuse
The child care center serves about 70 children whose families are affiliated in some way with the UK King’s Daughters Medical Center.
In their lawsuit, Neill and Smith say that Neills’ 3-year-old son allegedly spit on a classroom table on Aug. 2, 2024.
To punish the boy, teacher Sabrina P. Kitts grabbed him, forcibly restrained him and forced other children in the class to form a line so they could take turns spitting on him, according to the suit. Smith’s 3-year-old son was one of those other children.
Other classroom employees who were present failed to intervene or report the abuse, as they were legally required to, according to the suit. Nor did facility management report the incident to the Office of Inspector General despite watching closed-circuit television footage of the incident soon after it happened, according to the suit.
The Child Development Center remained open this week.
The Office of Inspector General did not respond to Herald-Leader questions about what actions, if any, it has taken against the facility.
Dodgeball, but not a game
In January 2025, Kitt and facility director Leighann M. McKenzie left their jobs at the Child Development Center with no suggestion to the families of children enrolled that anything had gone wrong, according to the suit.
It wasn’t until Feb. 28, more than six months after the spitting incident, that the child care center belatedly reported the incident to the Office of Inspector General — and only then because an internal whistle-blower threatened to come forward and file a complaint, according to the suit.
State regulators quickly informed Neill about what happened to her son, according to the suit.
However, the child care center did not formally notify families about what happened until August 2025 — one year later — and families were sometimes given inaccurate information about whether their children had been involved, according to the suit.
After the spitting incident was revealed, parents also learned about “dodgeball,” a punishment — not a game — where children at the child care center were placed against a wall and ordered to stand still as they were pelted with balls by staff and other children, according to the suit.
A King’s Daughters Medical Center senior manager told Smith “other things like dodgeball (are) coming to the surface,” adding “I don’t know how you found out,” according to the suit.
In the suit, Neill and Smith said they have withdrawn their sons from the child care center.
The families are alleging negligence, inflection of emotional distress, assault, battery, false imprisonment, civil conspiracy, aiding and abetting.
