Laureli Barrett has been battling between feelings of anger and guilt the past few days after learning the place she had been sending her young son for care had been home to a registered sex offender.
Barrett’s son, who was born with cerebral palsy and is non-verbal, had been attending Beating the Odds IBI and Child Development Services — now located in Essa Township — for several years.
That is no longer the case, after Barrett learned via an OPP “Community Safety Advisory” that the owner’s husband, Lauriston Charles Maloney, is a convicted sex offender with several prior convictions, which include "human trafficking of children."
On Wednesday, both the owner and her husband had been arrested and charged in a human trafficking investigation.
The advisory noted that Maloney “resides at and has regular access" to the facility, which serves as a child-care centre and camp that provides services to children with autism and other developmental delays.
OPP Sgt. Jason Folz said Maloney was convicted in Peel Region in 2004 and 2013 for 16 criminal charges related to trafficking of minor children. These convictions placed him on the national and Ontario sex offender registry for life.
“Someone who is convicted of trafficking minor children, you would think putting yourself in a precarious situation at best, having someone you’re close with run a daycare at your house … that wouldn’t raise eyebrows? I don’t know how you justify that to anybody,” said Folz.
“My son is one of the longest kids there,” she said, adding she learned of Maloney’s criminal background after her son’s father sent her a clip from TikTok on Monday night.
“I started Googling things and looking into stuff and was like … oh shit.”
She immediately pulled her son out of the centre, which offered applied behaviour analysis (ABA) and intensive behavioural intervention (IBI) services for children with autism and other developmental disorders.
“I was infuriated. I was angry. I felt betrayed because I have known these people and put my trust in these people to take care of my child who is non-verbal and can’t tell me anything … and you have a sex offender who had trafficked children in the kitchen every morning when I dropped him off? I felt like I had failed as a parent… but I didn’t know and I know I didn’t do anything wrong.”
Candice Williamson’s eight-year-old son, who has severe autism, moderate learning delay and is non-verbal, recently began attending the centre, after the Barrie woman learned about the centre through online autism support groups. She admitted she was impressed by the feedback she’d heard from other families — as well as following a tour of the facility — located on a large rural property northwest of Ivy on the 8th Line.
“When he started here he was making very good progress. I went based on my gut and thought they were good people. Boy was I wrong,” she said, admitting when she first read the OPP advisory she didn’t know what to think.
“I reached out to (the owner) Amber and she said to me this isn’t what it seems like,” said Williamson. “I didn’t want to judge anyone on their past. I have a past that I have been judged on … I needed more information. Nothing really registered at first. I was mad, frustrated and upset. Then I started finding out all of this other information.”
After she learned more about Maloney’s criminal past via the OPP advisory, Williamson also immediately pulled her son from the facility. She was also one of the approximately dozen individuals who gathered outside of the rural property Wednesday morning as part of a small protest, telling BarrieToday that she didn’t see any parents drop their children off during what would normally have been the start time for the program.
Knowing what they know now, both Barrett and Wiliamson are urging parents to always do their research before selecting a childcare provider or service.
“Ask questions. Ask to see vulnerable sector checks and ask to see if every staff member has them. Ask open-ended questions where they can’t skirt the question,” she said. “I never checked this place out and that falls on me as a parent, but there are not many IBI services … It sounded phenomenal. I thought it was good,” said Barrett.
