MENOMONEE FALLS, Wis. — For the second time in less than a month, a Waukesha County daycare is under fire for alleged abuse of children in its care.
Cadence Academy on Silver Spring Drive is the focus of the latest investigation after 27-year-old Madeline Ferguson was charged with two felony counts of physical abuse of a child.
“I’m disgusted, sickened, traumatized. I had to watch my son be abused with nothing I could do,” a father told TMJ4 News.
The father of the 3-year-old boy spoke to TMJ4 News with the promise to conceal his identity to protect his family’s privacy. He says he watched the 80 second video, showing Ferguson hit his son with a water bottle in the back of the head and then grab him by the back of his neck, dragging him across the room to sit in a chair. According to the criminal complaint, Ferguson told police she did this because of spilled water.
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“My son has marked behavior changes and I’m worried how he’s going to react to this for the rest of his life,” the father said.
The father shared a photo of his son’s neck with TMJ4 News. It shows distinct deep scratch marks on the boy’s neck.
“This was a 27-year-old female attacking a 3-year-old, causing lacerations near his jugular vein,” the father said. “She could have killed him.”
After the incident, the father says Ferguson sent them a message about the injury, asking if it happened at home and saying it would not stop bleeding.
Online records show Cadence Academy took over operations in this building in March of 2020. It’s one of 14 Cadence locations in Milwaukee, Waukesha, and Racine counties. According to YoungStar, a Wisconsin State childcare monitoring service, this Cadence location on Silver Spring in Menomonee Falls has had 16 violations since then, including lack of documentation for injuries. Two other times, the daycare was slow to report medical evaluations they conducted to the state.
The father says he’s upset the school wasn’t as transparent about how severe this abuse was. He shared a screen shot of the email he received, saying the teacher was fired and calling this an isolated incident and that Ferguson’s interactions with two children were “in a way that does not align with our values and expectations.”
“I would think any parent would want to know their child was in a room where two heinous acts of felony child abuse were committed in front of their children during their formidable years,” he said. “This happened in front of a room full of children who can’t speak for themselves or go home and talk about it. There’s no way to know how many true victims were here.”
TMJ4 News attempted to talk to employees at Cadence Academy in Menomonee Falls about this incident but they declined to comment. Instead, the corporate spokesperson provided a statement:
“We were recently informed of an incident involving one of our teachers. After reviewing the incident, we’ve determined the teacher's conduct was against our policies and did not align with our values and expectations, and the teacher has been terminated. We self-reported this incident to required agencies and have been in communication with our families. This was an isolated incident, and we will not tolerate such behaviors in our school. Providing a safe and nurturing environment for every one of our children is our top priority.”
However, the father TMJ4 News spoke to feels like the company isn’t looking out for the kids in their care. He says law enforcement didn’t get involved until he and his wife went to the Menomonee Falls Police Department, two days after the incident.
“The school had information for days and sat on it,” he said. “Police had info for hours and made an arrest. Parents need to know that. Parents need to know the school sat on this information and didn’t do anything.”
A background check on Ferguson showed she doesn’t have any prior charges against her in Wisconsin. Ferguson is due back in court on Oct. 3.
