Penn State named in lawsuit related to child sex abuse at Berks County child care center
Penn State was named in a lawsuit that alleged a child care center in Berks County run by the university and Bright Horizons failed to protect a child from sexual abuse.
The five count, 70-page lawsuit filed Thursday in Philadelphia by an unidentified family accused several Bright Horizons supervisors of failing to investigate or act upon numerous reports of child abuse. The family is seeking unspecified damages.
The university did not immediately respond Friday to a request for comment.
“This lawsuit seeks to hold Bright Horizons and Penn State accountable for their enabling of a pedophile who repeatedly sexually abused and assaulted a 5-year-old boy, who is now forever scarred,” attorney Tom Kline said in a statement. “The complaint catalogs many failures by Bright Horizons and Penn State over a span of years that allowed a pedophile to remain in the high ranks of their daycare center, resulting in repeated assaults against a helpless child.”
The alleged assaults were reported at Creative Beginnings Early Learning Center. The lawsuit singled out Andrew McCollin as the serial abuser.
McCollin, 33, is charged in Berks County with nine felony counts of sexual assault. He is accused of sexually assaulting the boy daily for more than two years.
“We were shocked and distressed when we received a concern from a parent last August. We immediately reported the concern to the appropriate agencies, and the Berks County Police Department began an investigation,” the company said Friday in a statement. “The families have our full support. We are grateful to the district attorney’s office for their diligent efforts in the investigation, and we will continue to work with them to ensure a just outcome.”