WILLIAMSPORT -- In just four years, Shaddi Albawab of Williamsport worked his way up from pre-school teacher at Pitter Patter Day School in Loyalsock Township, to the chief administrator of Pitter Patter's four child care facilities.
He thought it was a dream job.
"My wife had become a supervisor as well, and we had high hopes that we could turn things around," said Albawab, who thought the chain's problems were minor.
But over the summer Albawab quit.
"I no longer want to work in child care. It has disillusioned me that much," said the Williamsport man.
Why the change?
Pitter Patter operates four child care centers in central Pennsylvania. We checked the state's inspection records of over the last two years of all four facilities.
In March, Pennsylvania's Department of Public Welfare cited the Pitter Patter in Watsontown, after it found a staffer reportedly restraining a child on a couch, and quote, "smacking her own child." State records show the staffer was fired.
"It doesn`t matter who the child is," said Albawab. "It's a DPW regulation, that you're not allowed to lay a finger on them."
Records show that Pitter Patter Loyalsock had 24 citations from the state DPW over the past two years. Violations ranged from low staffing to unlabeled medicine.
The agency forced the Pitter Patter in Loyalsock to operate with a provisional license. The facility has up to six months to correct the problems, or face further sanctions that could include its license being revoked.
In January, the DPW did revoke the license of Pitter Patter Day School in Williamsport. That facility is still open as it appeals the state's decision.
According to the DPW, the violations at Pitter Patter Williamsport include a staffer falling asleep while supervising and holding children, and the facility regularly running out of milk.
"There was no milk for the kids last week," said a former worker who did not want to be identified. "They had water and crackers for a snack."
We left messages with Pitter Patter owner Bobby Jo Lundy.
She did not call us back and had few words when she confronted us recently outside Pitter Patter Loyalsock.
"Let me call my lawyer," she said, though no lawyer called Newswatch 16.
