Abuse case at Malvern School yields guilty plea

Caregiver sentenced to three years probation

WEST CHESTER » A former teacher at The Malvern School who was accused of physically abusing a young child in her care has been held to account for her actions, as two other one-time employees at the early childhood education institution await their day in court.

Earlier this month, Bucks County resident Kendall Marie Fleish pleaded guilty in Montgomery County to a single count of simple assault for her abuse of an 8-month-old girl she was caring for at the school’s Horsham location.

Fleish, who was charged by Horsham police in November 2020, was sentenced to three years probation by Common Pleas Judge Steven O’Neill on Jan. 5. As part of the agreement her attorney, Michael Noone of West Chester, reached with prosecutors, Fleisch will be prohibited from working or volunteering with children. And is not to have unsupervised contact with children other than her own.

Noone, a former Chester County First Assistant District Attorney, declined comment on behalf of his client last week.

Fleisch’s case came before the two arrests that were made by WesttownEast Goshen. Regional police last year of a teacher at the Westtown location who allegedly assaulted and harassed three toddlers there, and the supervisor at the school who allegedly delayed reporting the abuse to state authorities.

Both the teacher, Victoria Aronson, of Brookhaven, Delaware County, and her supervisor, Tiffany Janes Nichols, of Kennett Square, had their formal arraignments in Common Pleas Coury scheduled for Jan. 27. Their cases have not yet been assigned to a judge for trial. They have pleaded not guilty.

Attorney Chad Maloney, of the West Chester firm of Goldberg, Goldberg & Maloney, who represents the parents of all the children involved in the three cases in civil litigation, said on Saturday that he was saddened by the situation.

“It’s tragic to learn that another infant was abused, and another family was devastated, by yet another Malvern School teacher,” he said in an e-mail. “We commend law enforcement for the investigative work that led to this child abuser admitting her guilt in open court.

“On behalf of the families we represent and our community, we look forward to uncovering why child abuse occurred at two different Malvern School locations within a 15-month period,” said Maloney.

The Malvern School provided a statement about Fleisch’s case to a local television news station which broke the story of the Horsham case and interviewed the parents of child who is now 2 years old.

“We hold our team to exceptionally high standards and require all of our teachers to demonstrate steadfast devotion to ensuring our students are safe happy and healthy. We remain committed to our robust safety protocols and ongoing training efforts.” She was fired after her arrest.

The abuse of the Horsham child was discovered in June 2020. A criminal complaint states that the chid was dropped off by her mother to the school, which was on quarantine because of the pandemic. At the time, she had no bruises, redness, abrasions or marks on her, according to the arrest affidavit by Horsham Detective Kimberly Ngo.

But when she was picked up later that day, her mother noticed marks on her shoulder and around her left ear, the right side of her neck and her right forearm. An examination of the child at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia determined the cause of the marks to be suspected child abuse.

Fleish was the child’s primary caregiver at the school the morning of the suspected abuse. When she went on break, another official at the school noticed the marks on her head, which would worsen over time.

The child’s parents, in an interview with the television station, said, “From the start, it was clear we were on a different page about this.

“They were under the impression that there was no wrongdoing. We were very much in disagreement about that,” said Steven Clarke. The Clarkes say The Malvern School allowed Fleisch to care for other children for weeks until she was formally charged by the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office.

“We want them to identify these red flags, to see when it happens, to report it before it has to go to the nurse or the doctor that caught it,” Steven Clarke said.

According to a criminal complaint filed by Detective Michael Meiswich of the Westtown-East Goshen Regional Police Department (WEGO), the charges concerning Nichols involve actions she took or did not take following the reports of the abuse on the three toddlers allegedly committed by Aronson in the “First Step” age class at the school, which was opened in early 2021.

The complaint alleges that Nichols was told of the incidents by three separate witnesses to the events, yet failed to report the matter to ChildLine, the reporting agency for child abuse complaints in the state Department of Human Services, in a timely fashion.

It says that Aronson was allowed to remain employed by the school for a period of time despite the accusations of abuse, and continued to work in classrooms at the school. Aronson was arrested by WEGO in late October after police received a report of abuse from the Chester County Detectives Office, which had been forwarded a report by ChildLine.

According to Meiswich’s complaint, the alleged abuse of the three children — identified as victim E, age 15 months; victim S, age 16 months; and victim J, age 14 months — took place on Sept. 29 and 30 at the school. One of the children reportedly suffered a severe bruise on their back and a scratch near their eye.

The Malvern School provides care and educational programs to children from 6 weeks to 8 years old. It was founded in Malvern in 1998, and now has 26 locations across Pennsylvania and New Jersey.