Avon daycare worker charged with having inappropriate contact with a child
A staff member at the BrightPath Avon Early Learning and Child Care Center on Simsbury Road was arrested on Wednesday for having inappropriate contact with a child, according to police.
An administrator of the center contacted officers on Tuesday and said she believed an incident between the staff member and a child had occurred inside the center on Monday.
Police said they located the 29-year-old man, who is from Avon, at a home in Middletown and arrested him without incident.
He is charged with one count of risk of injury to a minor and one count of sexual assault in the fourth degree. He is being held in the Avon Police Department on a $250,000 bond.
Avon police are working with BrightPath administrators to notify anyone else who might have been affected.
“The administration at the BrightPath Center has been 100% cooperative with us up to this point,” Avon Police Chief Neil Dryfe said. “They did initiate the call as soon as they became aware of the allegation against their employee.”
Investigators have been conducting interviews and looking through surveillance video at the center to find out if anyone else was hurt.
“In a setting where there are multiple children, we are obviously concerned about that,” Dryfe said. “That is the focus of our investigation right now is to try and determine if there were and if there’s potentially any other victims.”
Investigators ask that anyone with related information contact the Avon Police Department’s Detective Division at 860-409-4230.
BrightPath issued a statement regarding the investigation:
We took immediate action, which included reporting to the Avon Police Department, the state licensing agency, and the Department of Children and Families (DCF), and we are cooperating with law enforcement and all relevant agencies through appropriate legal processes.
The individual involved is no longer employed by BrightPath.
The safety and well-being of every child entrusted to our care is, and always will be, our highest priority. We hold our educators to strong professional and ethical standards, and we take any conduct that may be inconsistent with those standards very seriously.
The Department of Children and Families said they have been contacted about the case.
“We can confirm we have received a report on these extremely concerning allegations and are conducting a joint investigation with Law Enforcement and the Office of Early Childhood,” said Peter Yazbak, director of communications for DCF.
Looking at the state inspection reports from the Avon center, one violation stood out.
According to a March 2025 report listed on 211 Childcare, a service supported by the state Office of Early Childhood, a child protection observation said, “staff failed to protect a child when she forced him to stay on his cot for 8 minutes while he was crying.” A correction action plan says that the worker was fired.
Parents we spoke to said the Avon area has a great reputation for schools and daycares.
“That’s the exact reason why we moved to this area, the school systems, childcare,” Simsbury neighbor Tyler Miller said. “To hear something like this happening in our community is pretty shocking.”
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