CALDWELL, Idaho — Lincoln Elementary School teacher, Kerry Black, was arrested on eleven misdemeanor counts of injury to a child on Feb. 17. All of her current victims are under four-years-old, according to a criminal complaint filed on Feb. 21.
As KTVB previously reported, all of the charges are from 2023 and allege that the abuse started in January.
A probable cause affidavit shows one of Black's aides told police that Black was abusive and aggressive with young kids for the past two years. KTVB spoke with a family that said their son was abused by Black in Dec. 2021 and his abuse isn't included in the current charges.
In the winter of 2021, Danita and her husband Curtis sent their then three-year-old son Cameron down the street to Lincoln Elementary for a two-week observation by the school's special education teacher, Black.
Cameron had a speech delay and the family's speech therapist suggested he should get into developmental preschool. Danita said she was hesitant about it because of Cameron's condition.
"I didn't want to take him because he couldn't talk," Danita said, "and he couldn't tell. You know, there's always that fear when you have a nonverbal child, that something's going to happen. And I think every mother feels that way. It's our worst fear that my child's not going to be safe in a classroom."
Unfortunately for Cameron, the family said, something did happen.
Danita said that the first time she met the teacher and filled out paperwork, Black appeared to be "meek and mousy." She said that Black was shy and timid at the first meeting but things changed and, "the person I dropped my son off with was not the person I met before."
"She was aggressive," Danita said. "She was stern. She was rigid. She was strict. She was not warm. She was not inviting. It was terrifying. And everything in my body told me to run and I didn't because you trust them. You trust the school system. You trust these pillars of our community."
When Danita picked Cameron up from Lincoln Elementary two and a half hours later, she felt something was off.
"I should have just taken him home," she said. "I can't say that enough: I should have just turned around and taken him home. I should have never left him there."
Danita said Cameron was in a different state from when he was dropped off. She said his eyes were swollen as if he'd been crying all day, his nose was running and he seemed distraught and traumatized.
"I brought this bright boy there, and I brought home this sad, sad three-year-old who was just excited to see his mom," Danita said. "And the first thing he said to me when I picked him up was: 'I don't want to go back there,' and Cameron didn't even talk then. He didn't say more than 100 words and he certainly didn't form sentences like that at the time."
Curtis said that, at that time, Cameron only ever formed full sentences when he was under stress. So, the parents called Black to see what had happened.
Black told Danita they tried making Cameron do certain things but he screamed and cried and threw toys at the teachers.
"She said that they pinned him in a chair, that they used their foot to push the chair into the table," Danita said. "And I said: 'You pinned my son in a chair?' and she said, 'Well, no, he could move his arms and his body, but he couldn't get out of the chair.'"
Later that afternoon, while she was bathing Cameron, Danita said she found a bruise and thumbnail imprint on him.
"It wasn't there when I brought him to school," Danita said. "It wasn't there when I got him dressed that morning, and there was no one else in the room."
She called Lincoln's principal and immediately wrote a letter to Caldwell School District Superintendent, Dr. N. Shalene French. The Erfurts even met with the school resource officer (SRO).
That officer wrote a report, obtained by KTVB; in it, the officer notes that the principal said they'd investigate to figure out if Black or her aide violated district policy.
According to the police report, the women told the principal while they were changing Cameron's pull up he was struggling on an elevated changing table. They said they grabbed him by the shoulder to lay him down and said they were trying to keep him "safe from falling off the table".
The principal told the Erfurts that the staff's actions violated school district policy. But a district spokesperson will not say whether Black or her aide faced discipline, citing personnel reasons under Idaho Idaho Code 74-106 and 33-518.
The district tells KTVB any employee found violating the Code of Ethics for Idaho Professional Educators, Idaho law and/or their board policy by not reporting information within the time frames outlined in the policy "may be disciplined by written reprimand, suspension, paid or unpaid leave of absence, reassignment, probation or discharge."
The SRO handed the Erfurt's case off to another Caldwell officer due to conflict of interest because of his role in the school.
That officer asked the principal and superintendent for Black and her aide's statements. According to the police report, the school district refused to give them to police without a subpoena.
"It just doesn't make sense," Curtis said. "Whatever they said didn't make sense. I'd like to see the original copy, what they wrote down."
That officer didn't speak to Black or her aide, but recommended charging them with injury to a child. He sent the report to the Canyon County Prosecutor's Office, which never filed charges.
On Thursday, the prosecutor's office told KTVB:
“The Canyon County Prosecutor’s Office looks at each case carefully, and take extra precautions when children are involved. In this case the officers involved chose not to issue a criminal citation and rather have the Prosecutor’s Office review the matter instead. Based on the investigation and report that was provided to us, we concluded that we could not prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt, which is the burden placed upon prosecutors to prove a case at trial.
As prosecuting attorneys, we have an ethical duty to only file cases that have sufficient evidence. We are also limited by the information that our law enforcement partners are able to provide us. Our roles, though complimentary, are very different. The police are responsible for investigating criminal activity and providing their findings to the prosecutor. The prosecutor’s job is not to simply seek convictions, but rather to pursue justice. Sometimes that means holding our law enforcement partners to a high standard by declining to prosecute cases when there is simply insufficient evidence to proceed.
Further, it is our understanding from the reports provided that the school conducted an internal investigation but refused to provide those findings to law enforcement."
Now, more than a year after the Erfurts' experience with Black, she was arrested.
"We told you so," Curtis said, "And now look what's happened? How many more victims happened, you know what I mean, because they didn't take it seriously?"
The probable cause affidavit show six Lincoln Elementary staff members said Black hit, spanked, and forcefully grabbed the heads of multiple developmentally delayed preschoolers in January and February.
"Thank god those people spoke up," Danita said.
A spokesperson for the district said Black won't be returning to any classroom in the Caldwell School District.
"She needs a little jail time to think about what she's done," Curtis added. "She needs to be held accountable for her actions. The school district needs to be held accountable for not taking some stuff more seriously. You don't underreact to stuff like that. You overreact and then go from there."
Superintendent French said in a statement to KTVB Thursday that they are constantly striving to build trusting relationships with families, students, staff and the community:
"We recognize how fragile these trusting relationships are and when an individual behaves in a way that compromises that trust, it reverberates throughout our community.
We are saddened and sorry for the wrongdoing. We have held individual meetings with each of the families and we will continue to do so. We have made staffing changes.
More importantly, we will hold ourselves accountable to provide a safe and joyful learning environment for our children."
The Erfurts say Cameron is now safe in his preschool classroom at a different elementary school. They say the Caldwell School District does have great teachers they can trust.
"He's thriving," Danita said, "and it's so amazing to see the language come, to see the sentences come, to see the behavior adjust and to see him just flourish as a person at four-years-old is pretty, I mean it's amazing. Every day he's amazing."
The Erfurts encourage parents to listen to their kids, ask them questions, talk about their day and really pay attention to them. They also want cameras in the classrooms for developmentally delayed students.
Black posted bond and is currently out of jail. Her arraignment is scheduled for March 3 at 2:30 p.m. in Canyon County.
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