11 child carers returned to work after assault charges, and allegedly re-offended

Army Radio reports that 776 child care workers charged with violence in last 7 years.

By TAMARA ZIEVE
Updated: OCTOBER 14, 2018 19:54
A DAYCARE CENTER in Jerusalem. [Illustrative photo] (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
A DAYCARE CENTER in Jerusalem. [Illustrative photo]
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
In the last 7 years, 776 child care workers were charged with violence against children, and of those 11 returned to work with children only to be charged with assault again, Army Radio reported on Sunday.
The Education Ministry said that it was not given any information about those incidents, and reiterated that daycare centers that are supervised by the ministry begin only at age three. It added that any staff member who is indicted does not remain in the education system.
Yesh Atid MK Karin Elharar reacted to the news saying: “The biggest fear of every parent with a child is that the person who is entrusted with their treasure will be found to be an abuser, but when it comes to a child carer who has been convicted in the past and has returned to care for toddlers, it is not only frightening, it makes one’s blood boil.
Eleven carers [who were] again convicted shows that it’s not just an unsupervised field but the Wild West! In what world can people who hurt children so easily open another daycare center and hurt more children, with nothing to stop them?!”
“For three years I have been struggling to pass the Daycare Supervision Law, precisely for these reasons, so that only those who deserve it can take care of our little children and I will continue to fight for this in the next [Knesset] session,” Elharar added.
Liat Glantz, coordinator of the Coalition for Education from Birth told The Jerusalem Post: “it is inconceivable that in the Israel of 2018, there is complicated bureaucracy required to open a pizzeria, but there is nothing preventing someone from opening a daycare center.”
The coalition is working to advance legislation to establish oversight and regulation of private daycare centers for ages zero to three, which passed its first reading in the Knesset in July and is set to be advanced in the coming days.
Once it has passed the second and third readings, the law is expected to be fully implemented within six to seven years. At first it will only be applied to daycare centers which are attended by at least 28 toddlers, following this it will be expanded to centers that serve at least 18 toddlers, and lastly to those attended by at least 7 children.
To date, there is no oversight over private daycare centers, meaning that anyone who wishes to open a center can do so without a license, without any regulated standards of safety, or any form of supervision. Today, 23% of all Israeli children between the ages of zero and three – around some 600,000 children – are in supervised frameworks.
In contrast, public daycare centers are under the authority of the Labor and Social Services Ministry, which provides oversight and enforcement.
Another law which seeks to tackle the issue is the “Cameras Law,” which allows for state subsidization of security cameras in daycare centers. In its current format it does not make installation of cameras obligatory.
Earlier this month, police arrested a kindergarten teacher from Ashkelon on suspicions of violence against the children at her private kindergarten, after she had been convicted of similar crimes in 2016.
In June, a kindergarten assistant was indicted for manslaughter and multiple offenses of abuse following the death of one-year-old Yasmin Vinta, whose death the defendant allegedly caused while putting her and another baby to sleep.


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