Parents: Preston Hollow Child Development Center mishandled threatening phone calls

Markus Neubauer was uneasy dropping his 2-year-old daughter off at daycare this past Monday.

An armed, off-duty officer stood watch outside the Preston Hollow Child Development Center, and parents didn’t know why he was there.

The officer handed Neubauer a letter, his wife Lilly says, that stated three families were asked to leave the day care center, and so additional security was needed to prevent them from returning. Neubauer was skeptical, but the administration insisted that was the only reason for the officer’s presence.

Parents already were concerned with the center’s lack of communication and high teacher turnover, so they had previously scheduled a meeting with United Methodist Church of Preston Hollow pastor Mike Nichols, Lilly says. During the meeting that night, Nichols told them security actually was present because the day care received anonymous threatening phone calls.

His explanation, which was recorded, was upsetting to parents.

“It was extremely jarring to hear on Monday there had been a threat,” Lilly says. “It went against what was in the letter, and it went against what he was told by administrators. We know this happens. We can’t just live in a world where this might not occur, but it was certainly scary to know the school would lie to you or withhold from you or manipulative the truth.”

The incident, also outlined in this Dallas Morning News article, led the Neubauers and two other families to remove their children from the center.

“It was really jarring to hear a pastor of a church talk about a threat to children and address it so casually,” Lilly says.

Despite the day care center’s popularity among local families, it has received 27 citations during the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services’ inspections the past two years, and 14 of those were considered high-risk.

Complaints included not fingerprinting employees, using prohibited punishments — such as “pulling a child by the leg and clothes to make the child sit next to the caregiver as a form of timeout” — and not having proper emergency medical authorization for several children.

Because the day care center has been a part of the community for so long, Lilly believes these issues often are overlooked.

“We Googled the school and never found any sort of place where a parent could say their opinion on the school, positive or otherwise. That seems to be how it stays popular.”

She also noted there aren’t many options for full-time child care in the area.

“Full day care in the Preston Hollow area is fairly limited, and that is why I think parents are very nervous when there’s an issue at the school,” she says. “There’s a lot of logistical work, as well as emotional, to move their children to a different program.”

Nichols told the Advocate there was no phone threat, but emails were sent that contained an “adversarial tone.”

“I would say the word threat has been thrown around a lot, and that’s not an accurate term,” he says.  “In some emails that I was not privy to there was an adversarial tone. There was never a threat to the school … Essentially, there’s not a story here, because the center proceeded in good order and nothing has happened here. I’m not sure what there is to report with that.

“The additional security was a precautionary step to make sure there was no scene or anything like that caused in the CDC.”

However, in an email sent to parents, school officials state that they had received an anonymous call, which contributed to their decision to have additional security on campus.

“The goal was to ensure safety and deter any disruptions during the day,” the email says. “In attempts to provide an explanation for the officer’s presences, a letter was provided to parents on Monday morning.  In retrospect, the letter did not do an adequate job of conveying the motives behind the police officer’s presence.