Iowa child care worker charged with felony child endangerment in Lee County baby's death
Jason ClayworthA Donnellson day care worker was charged Thursday with felony child endangerment in connection with the December death of a 4-month-old boy.
Jack Rowland was found unresponsive at the Raisin’ Em Up Early day care in Donnellson on Dec. 3. He died in a hospital Dec. 11 after being removed from life support.
An autopsy determined Rowland’s cause of death was a brain injury caused by oxygen deprivation, a result of prolonged resuscitation efforts after the child suffered cardiorespiratory arrest. Why he went into cardiorespiratory arrest, an ailment caused by a failure of the heart to effectively pump blood, was undetermined, according to the autopsy.
Rowland’s death prompted an investigation by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and further review by the Iowa Department of Human Services of the facility’s license.
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Laura McDowell, the site supervisor and lead teacher at the day care, was charged Thursday with child endangerment causing death. McDowell, 30, did not return calls seeking comment. There are no other charges pending in the case, DCI agent Richard Rahn said.
McDowell placed Rowland on the floor "in a prone position on his stomach for an extended period of time without appropriate supervision and attentiveness" that is required to care for an infant, prosecutors allege in court documents filed this week. In addition to Rowland, McDowell was watching five other children who were under the age of 2 at the time of the incident, the documents show. State child care rules allowed her to watch no more than four children of that age.
The day care has been operating in Donnellson, a town of less than 1,000 people in far southeast Iowa, for almost 20 years. It has recently been cited with multiple regulatory violations.
During two unannounced visits in 2017, DHS found the day care was out of compliance with the requirement of one staffer for every four infants. The problem was attributed to the center improperly mixing age groups of children, which created the ratio imbalance.
And reports released in June show center employees inadvertently gave multiple doses of medications to children on at least two occasions this year, fell asleep while providing care, and on two occasions left a child unsupervised on a bus.
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Reports show owner Sarah Tweedy agreed to close the center on April 17, giving parents two weeks to find new child care, but she changed her mind a week later and is fighting the license revocation. The day care — as of earlier this week — continued to operate as Tweedy appeals the revocation.
Since Rowland's death, DHS — citing texts obtained by the Division of Criminal Investigation — concluded “the center displayed active efforts to deceive child care licensing.” In a March 2 text, for example, a staffer told a colleague that the center would be “screwed” if an inspector came because not enough workers were on hand to meet DHS' adult-to-children ratios.
“I will cast a spell to keep her away for at least another hour,” Tweedy said in a response text, according to DHS records.
Tweedy told the Register in July that the DHS’ findings were inaccurate or exaggerated. She declined to discuss specific allegations, citing her ongoing appeal and the DCI investigation.
Tweedy did not return a call seeking comment Thursday.
“I work every day to make little people into good humans for the world. That’s my only mission,” Tweedy said in July.
A June 18 local television news report, which did not mention Rowland’s death, showed some parents with children at the center were rallying behind Tweedy. Calls to the parents who spoke to the television station were not returned.
Rowland’s family members have previously shared pictures of the infant with the Register but declined to be interviewed, saying they didn’t want to risk jeopardizing the investigation.
Rowland is one of at least seven children who have died in Iowa day cares since January 2018. At least four of the day cares involved were previously warned they were operating over capacity or at unsafe staff ratio levels, a Des Moines Register investigation published in July showed.
At least two other child care providers face ongoing charges related to the deaths, including unregulated in-home day care providers Trina Mazza of Johnston and Jennifer Brungardt of Ankeny.