A Moncton-based charitable agency that's been helping children for more than 40 years said Thursday that it has let go four staff members after an “incident” last week in one of its classrooms.
Moncton Headstart provides support and programs for young children from two to seven years old.

The organization held a press conference Thursday afternoon, but didn't provide many details, only saying that an "incident" took place late last Wednesday, and they began an investigation immediately.

That investigation began with two employees who were suspended with pay immediately following the incident, but on Thursday morning, Headstart terminated both of those employees, along with two others.

While Headstart won't speak to the specifics of the incident, a spokesperson did point to the operations manual for early learning childcare centres. The manual prohibits the following actions by staff members:
  • striking a child;
  • shaking, shoving, spanking, pinching, or other measures that produce physical pain;
  • verbal abuse such as yelling;
  • sending a child to a cot, mat, time-out chair, or a corner; and
  • physically restraining a child.
The matter has been referred to the New Brunswick Education Department.

When asked why the incident has not been referred to the RCMP, Chad Peters of Moncton Headstart said: “The way the system works when an incident is discovered is it gets reported to the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development and Social Development. In the operating standards, it outlines the relative pieces of legislation that are governed - those two practices and in there they would make the determination of the decision on what we get referred.”

Peters also said that parents who have children in programs at Moncton Headstart have received a letter informing them that an investigation is and will be ongoing in regards to the incident.
The charity has been a fixture in the community providing support for many families and children in disadvantaged circumstances.


With files from CTV Atlantic’s Eilish Bonang.