Two former employees of Kids Quality Time Childcare Center, located on Springwood Ave in Gibsonville, North Carolina, have come forward with disturbing allegations against the daycare’s director, Heather McFarling Morse.
The employees claim that Morse subjected at least four children to abusive disciplinary methods.
Witnessing Alleged Abuse
Savannah Lowery, a former employee, told The North Carolina Beat that she began working at the daycare on November 25, 2024, but resigned just over a week later, citing alleged misconduct by Morse as her reason. Lowery detailed a particularly troubling incident involving a 3-year-old boy.
On December 3, 2024, the child had accidentally cracked a plastic chair while playing. Lowery says she calmly spoke to the boy, encouraging him to settle down, but what happened next left her horrified.
“I called him to me and told him not to jump around like that because I didn’t want him to get hurt,” Lowery said she told the 3-year-old boy. “I told him to just sit down for a couple of minutes to calm down.”
According to Lowery, Morse entered the classroom, “jerked the little boy up by his arm,” dragged him to her office, and spanked him. Lowery claims she heard the spanking through the walls, which do not extend to the ceiling, and saw the boy return to class holding his bottom, crying.
So, the director of the daycare… she comes into the room, jerks the little boy up by his arm, drags him to her office, and spanks him,” Lowery said
The punishment allegedly didn’t end there. Morse reportedly made the child hold the cracked chair in the air for over two hours, from 9:20 a.m. until nearly noon.
“She brings him back to my classroom after she had yelled at him, spanked him, and whatever else occurred in her office because there are no cameras in her office,” Lowery explained.
“She makes this 3-year-old little boy hold the chair in the air that he cracked for hours, from around 9:20 in the morning to like 11:30… 11:45.”
“I would tell him he could put the chair down. Whenever she went out of the room, she’d come back in and make him pick the chair back up,” Lowery said. “And I basically got in trouble for trying to step in and stop what was going on.”
During this time, the boy wet himself. Lowery says Morse instructed her not to change his clothes, insisting the boy “sit in his urine as a lesson.”
“After he peed on himself, I tried to change him into different clothes because all the kids are required to have extra clothes in case accidents happen, Lowery explained.
“‘I was told, ‘Do not change his clothes; he is to sit in the clothes that he urinated in as discipline because he’s going to learn.””
Alleged Abuse of a 2-Year-Old
In another incident, Lowery reported seeing Morse aggressively handle a 2-year-old boy who had bitten another child. She alleges that Morse grabbed the boy’s face so tightly that his skin turned white and yelled at him until he began crying.
“Heather comes into the classroom, grabs the little boy’s face; his face is turning white where she was grabbing it so hard, and she screams in his face until he starts crying and becomes really, really upset,” Lowery said.
Lowery said she was in shock and was trying her best to keep her composure and not go to jail that day. She said she had to take a break. Lowery also said that the kids involved in these two separate incidents are Black boys. Lowery, whose own daughter attended the daycare, says she confronted Morse about these actions.
According to her, Morse dismissed her concerns and told her to “suck it up or leave.”
Another Employee Speaks Out
Kristen Farrell, another former employee, corroborated Lowery’s claims and shared her own experiences. Farrell, who worked at the daycare briefly starting in November 2024, recounted an incident where Morse allegedly mishandled a child during nap-time. Farrell says she was attempting to calm the child by rubbing his back when Morse stormed in, lifted the child roughly by his arm, and yelled at him.
Well… Heather was watching the cameras when she came in, and as I was getting him turned over and comfortable, she picked him up with his arm still by his side and yelled in his face, talking about, ‘You need to lay down, he needs to take a nap… he needs to listen to me,'” Farrell said about Heather.
Farrell claims Morse justified her behavior by saying, “I hate when y’all make the probation officer side of me come out.” Farrell described the interaction as abusive and inappropriate.
After Morse allegedly finished yelling at the boy, Farrell said she let go of his arm.
“She didn’t like throw him down, but he wasn’t on the bed before she let go, and then she proceeds to say, ‘I hate when y’all make the probation officer side of me come out,’ and I’m like, these are KIDS,” Farrell said.
Farrell also shared a harrowing story about her own 2-year-old son, who she alleges was mistreated by a former teacher at the daycare. According to Farrell, the teacher grabbed her son by his hair and screamed at him for not listening.
“They were on the playground, and his teacher at the time, who no longer works there, was separating my child and another child from each other because the kids were bickering and fighting, “Farrell said.
“My son wanted to go play, so she told him to go play, but she was still directing him and telling him that he needed to be nice to his friends.'”
Farrell said the former teacher told her that the next thing she knew, she turned around because she heard Farrell’s son screaming.
“She heard my son SCREEAAMMING and she turned around, and the teacher, who no longer works there, had my son by his hair, leaned over the fence, pulling my son’s hair so she could be in his face, telling him that he needs to listen to his teacher.”
When Farrell raised concerns with Morse and the daycare’s owner, Raysheall Vanscoy, she says they acted as though they were unaware of the incidents and attempted to gaslight her. Farrell submitted her resignation Friday night (Dec. 6).
Lowery and Farrell have spoken with parents about what they witnessed at the daycare.
The North Carolina Beat reached out to Kids Quality Time Childcare Center for comment, but as of publication, neither Morse nor Vanscoy has responded.
