PARK SLOPE — The city's child welfare authorities are investigating a Park Slope day care center that was forced to shut down part of its operation last year after child abuse allegations, but the facility's owner says the probe is "unfounded."
The Administration for Children's Services Office of Special Investigations is investigating a Dec. 21 incident at Avalon Academy's infant program at 204 15th St., said a spokeswoman for the Department of Health & Mental Hygiene, which oversees day care facilities.
The Department of Health and ACS declined to comment on the subject of the investigation. The day care passed Dept. of Health inspections in November and December with no violations.
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Avalon owner Thomas J. Mulvi on Wednesday called the ACS investigation "absolute nonsense." Mulvi said the complaint to ACS involved a 5-year-old child, but children that old don't attend his facility.
Mulvi called the ACS probe the latest in a string of manufactured allegations against his business that have left him financially drained and angry at city agencies.
"It's a tough deal," Mulvi told DNAinfo. "They've besmirched my name and my brand."
Avalon Academy, which opened in 1997, previously ran a preschool program for 2 to 5-year-olds in the same building as its infant program at 15th Street and Fifth Avenue, but it was shut down in May 2015 and hasn't reopened since.
The Dept. of Health suspended Avalon's preschool program license after two caregivers were caught on video mistreating children. Both caregivers were arrested in June 2015 on child endangerment charges and are due to start trial within the next several weeks.
One caregiver was seen on video pushing a 2-year-old girl to the ground, while another video showed a different caregiver pulling on another 2-year-old girl's ear, according to criminal complaints filed by the Brooklyn District Attorney's office.
Mulvi said Wednesday that the videos were a "sham" cooked up by an employee who was angry about not getting a promotion.
After the Department of Health suspended Avalon's preschool license in May 2015, the school submitted a "corrective action plan" to DOH, but the agency rejected the plan in August and hasn't heard from Avalon since, a DOH spokeswoman said.
Avalon has a history of Department of Health violations, but Mulvi said the city's complaints about his facility were "arbitrary."
In 2011, emeregency medical workers responded to a report that an infant at Avalon's infant program was "possibly in cardiac arrest," an FDNY spokesman said. The baby was rushed to New York Methodist Hospital in an ambulance, according to the FDNY, and pronounced dead there, Patch reported. Mulvi said his staff performed CPR on the baby and kept the infant alive until the ambulance arrived. "No child ever died in my facility," Mulvi said.
DOH inspectors found several violations during an inspection immediately following the death, all of which were later corrected, records show.
In November 2015, Avalon closed another day care it ran in Red Hook on Sullivan and Richards streets. Mulvi said he was forced to shutter the facility because he couldn't keep up rent payments, partly because of fines issued by city inspectors.
Mulvi said Avalon's facilities were once considered model day cares, but in recent years he's been the victim of unfair treatment by the city's Department of Health. He estimated that he's lost $1.25 million because of the "forced" closure of his programs.
Avalon's Park Slope infant program has enough room for 34 kids, but now cares for only 16 children, Mulvi said. Some parents have been scared off by bad press about Avalon, he said. He said his staff of 33 has shrunk to just five people, and he worries about the future of his remaining employees.
Avalon is one of the largest and most affordable day cares in Park Slope, and serves some low-income kids whose fees are subsidized by the city, as well as parents with long work schedules — it's open from 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
"I have one school limping along," Mulvi said. "I'm about as pissed as I can probably get because of losing a brand after 18 years and tens of thousands of children."
