Cranberry day care worker charged with fracturing girl's elbow
Weeks after Cranberry police charged a day care employee for assaulting a child, court records reveal another employee is facing similar charges.
Officers charged 38-year-old Richa Gupte with assault after court records said the assistant group supervisor at Allie Alligator Learning Center fractured a 2-year-old girl's elbow on June 2. Police said that as the girl was reaching for a toy from a shelf, Gupte "forcefully" pulled her arm.
Before then, police charged 26-year-old Joshua Branstetter, another assistant group supervisor, with endangering the welfare of a child and assault. Court records said during naptime on May 22, Branstetter pushed a 3-year-old boy's back onto his bed, causing him to hit his face off the bedframe, injuring his eye.
In the criminal complaint, police wrote that "the push was so forceful that Branstetter's leg lifted off the ground and he rocked himself forward" and the bed even moved "a few inches."
Sarah LaLonde is still heartbroken after she says a teacher at Allie Alligator got aggressive with her 3-year-old daughter when she didn't pull her pants up fast enough in the bathroom, causing bruising on her arms.
"Grabbed her, dragged her to the sink, washed her hands very aggressively for her, started yelling at her again because she wouldn't get her on the wall to line up, and just like kind of tossed her on the wall," LaLonde said.
It happened this past January at the Cranberry location off Commerce Park Drive.
"These are people that I trusted to tell me the truth and protect my daughter, and she just wasn't protected," LaLonde said.
LaLonde was also an employee there, but was helping out that week at the Warrendale location.
So far, police haven't filed charges in LaLonde's incident, as it happened behind closed doors.
After leaving her job, LaLonde said about 10 others walked out as well, leaving Allie Alligator short-staffed with what she called no support from management. She also said that when she was there, workers only received a little online training.
KDKA-TV reached out to Allie Alligator for comment about the charges and the suspects' job status but didn't hear back by airtime.
LaLonde just hopes these charges mean something will change for the good of the children.
"That makes me feel like some sort of justice is being served here, that, you know, at least they can set an example," LaLonde said.
Both suspects remain out of jail awaiting preliminary hearings in August.
If you have any information about these incidents or are concerned your child may have been hurt at this or another day care, call police.