A Myrtle Beach area child care is facing two lawsuits after one of its former teachers was arrested for hitting and kicking multiple children who were in her care.
Alexandria Allabaugh worked at the time at My Sunshine Child Development Center , located at 3631 Socastee Blvd. in the Socastee area.
A message left for the owner of My Sunshine was not immediately returned on Friday.
Allabaugh, 30, was charged in March with nine counts of placing a child at risk, according to an Horry County Police report. She pled guilty to the assault and battery charges on July 10, 2024, and was sentenced to three years in prison with two years suspended on probation, according to court records.
Allabaugh was also ordered to register for the Central Registry of Child Abuse and Neglect and to undergo mental health counseling.
An Horry County Police report said that Allabaugh pulled sleeping children off their mats by their legs, flipped another child’s mat over while she was asleep and kicked multiple children. She is also accused of “striking (a child) in the face, kicking the child, causing her to roll into a shelf, and then causing the child to hit her head.”
Parents were able to view video footage of the abuse after they were contacted by the director on Feb. 16, 2024, saying that the center was forced to fire a teacher due to abuse allegations, according to the lawsuits.
Rachel Sheridan, who is the mother of D.E.S., and Alexis Sessions, mother of A.D., both filed lawsuits against the child care center on Aug. 15, 2024.
Sheridan claims that her daughter had attended the center since 2022 and didn’t have any issues until September 2023 when she was moved into a different section for children who were ages 3 and over. D.E.S. began complaining about a number of issues in her class and then on Feb. 14, 2024, the girl came home “particularly out of sorts” and did not want to be left alone, the suit said.
Two days later both Sheridan and Sessions received the phone call about the abuse by one of the teachers at the child care center. During the meeting, parents were informed that there may be other videos chronicling Allabaugh’s abuse of the children in her care, the suit said.
The parents were told that the center had hired new staff, were going to retrain current staff and that there would be constant monitoring via tablets of the children in their care. However, when Sheridan went back several days later to pick up her daughter, the monitoring tablet was turned off, the suit said.
Sheridan had multiple conversations with the director about the issues. Then on Feb. 28, 2024, Sheridan was informed that the center had ended D.E.S.’s enrollment, the suit said.
According to the suits, a press release issued by the CEO of My Sunshine, Allabaugh was terminated by the center prior to it “finding out about this incident.”
In addition, a press release from Allabaugh’s prior child care employer, Creative Beginnings, two complaints were made about Allabaugh to the Department of Social Services in 2022, the suits said. Both complaints came back as unfounded, but Allabaugh was terminated by Creative Beginnings following the second complaint, the suits said.
Both Sheridan and Sessions claim that their children have been injured and damaged by way of mental anguish and emotional distress.
The suits claim that My Sunshine was negligent in providing a safe environment for the children and in their hiring and supervision of Allabaugh.
Both suits are asking for a jury trial.
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