COEUR d’ALENE — The Britches and Bows daycare center in Coeur d’Alene and its owner again are under police investigation following allegations of child abuse.

The first investigation started in February, following allegations by a mother who removed her children from the facility.

The newest allegations are from April.

Former employees told The Press they made multiple efforts to secretly record video with their cell phones of the alleged regular abuse of children they observed by the owner and operator of the daycare, Barbara J. “Pat” Schenck. The employees shared the videos with the newspaper.

The videos they captured don’t appear to show violence. They do show Schenck roughly moving and standing children up by grabbing their shirts or arms.

A Coeur d’Alene detective wrote in a police report in February that, “I told Pat although she does not appear to be violent to the children, the videos I have received show that she does raise her voice and uses her hands to push the children and/or hit their head.”

Coeur d’Alene City Attorney Michael Gridley said Friday his office is not pursuing criminal charges following the earlier allegations investigated by police in February. The city prosecutor handling the case for the city, Ann Eckhart, didn’t return a call seeking comment.

A spokeswoman for the Coeur d’Alene Police Department said Monday a second investigation is under way following new and similar child-abuse allegations.

The city attorney’s office has not reviewed the newest allegations for possible prosecution, Sgt. Christie Wood said Monday. The police department declined to release details of the latest allegations and investigation because the case remains open.

When interviewed by The Press on Friday, Pat Schenck and her son and business manager, Jack Schenck, denied allegations of child abuse. They declined further comment. They said their attorney has told them the investigation has concluded.

Britches and Bows, which operates at 901 N. Third St., has been licensed with the city of Coeur d’Alene since 2009. The center can care for a maximum of 40 children.

Britches and Bows has two other locations, one in Post Falls and one in Grangeville. The abuse allegations are not tied to those facilities.

The first investigation began after a mother reported earlier this year that she believed her four daughters were getting abused at the daycare by Pat Schenck.

According to a Coeur d’Alene police report released late last week, the mother, Tasha R. Wells of Hayden, said one daughter attending the daycare reported that, “Pat pulled her hair and slaps her.”

Police said they observed a “small red welt” on the arm of one of Wells’ daughters.

“It appeared as though she was pinched,” the report said.

Dori M. Cappa, a Coeur d’Alene resident and former employee, told police in February she saw Pat Schenck slap a child “upside the head and put her in time-out,” according to the report. She has also witnessed alleged hair pulling, she told police.

Cappa told police she allegedly saw Schenck grab a child by the arm and drag her from a rocking chair to the ground.

“Dori believes (Schenck) says hateful things to the kids and yells too loud,” the report said.

As an example, Cappa told police she saw Schenck allegedly yell at a 3-year-old boy for wetting his pants.

Cappa said: “Pat yelled discouraging things to this little boy,” according to the report.

Cappa was fired from the daycare just after being interviewed by police, the report said.

Schenck told police at the time that Cappa was fired because she was the last person hired and the daycare had lost a number of children recently, so Cappa had to be let go.

Schenck told police she has been a licensed daycare provider since 1987, and was in Montana from 1987 to 2003. She also was a foster parent for seven years, she told police.

Brittany Ehrmantrout, who worked at the daycare during the investigation but said she was planning on leaving at the time, told police she had not seen Schenck abuse the children.

Multiple former employees spoke with The Press, telling of alleged abuse they said they witnessed.

“I wouldn’t want somebody treating a child of mine like that,” Debra Fante, 39, said. “It’s not right what she’s doing. People trust us to care for these kids.”

In the two years she worked at the daycare, Fante said she witnessed kids allegedly get their ears pulled, get pushed down, pinched, and called names.

“I would never pinch a kid, (or) walk up and push them,” said Fante, who moved to Pennsylvania. “I don’t think she should be allowed to operate.”

Kassie Amundson, 21, who lives in Billings, said during the two years she worked there she saw Schenck allegedly hit kids in the back of the head, pull them up by their shirts, and pull them by their ears.

“Pat is very verbally and physically abusive to children,” Amundson wrote to The Press in an email. “They are very money hungry people. They are always out of ratio because they don’t want to spend money hiring people. Debra and I had over 30 kids and it was just the two of us watching the kids.”

She said she is speaking out now because she believes parents have a right to know what happens after they drop their kids off at the daycare and drive away.

“I am sharing the videos so parents know just because they are licensed doesn’t mean they are safe,” Amundson said.

She also complained about cleanliness, how kids are allowed to attend even with pink-eye, lice and the flu.

Natosha Thornhill, 30, Post Falls, worked at Britches and Bows for a few months before quitting on April 20.

She said Schenck is “not OK with children and I couldn’t take seeing it anymore.”

She said she saw Schenck allegedly verbally abusing the children, calling them “ugly,” “moron,” “retard,” “stupid,” and didn’t give the children enough food.

Thornhill has seven kids, and the four youngest ones went to the daycare while Thornhill worked there.

Thornhill said Schenck would allegedly jerk the kids around by their arms.

“They’d always hold their arms like it hurt,” she said.

Thornhill saw Schenck allegedly hit the kids, open fist, on the head frequently.

“That’s her favorite thing, to come up and smack them on top of the head,” Thornhill said.

She said Schenck went through a lot of employees for the way she treated kids and employees.

Former employee Angela Griswold, 27, of Coeur d’Alene, worked there for a few months from late 2009 to early 2010.

She said Schenck would allegedly call the children “idiots,” “stupid,” “retarded,” and make fun of a child that was possibly autistic, keeping the boy in a high chair all day long.

“She’d hit them on the head and smack them on the hands,” Griswold said. “She’d pop them in the mouth.”

She’s worked in two other daycare centers other than Britches and Bows, she said.

The differences are “night and day,” Griswold said. “We don’t put our hands on the children.”

Her daughter attended Britches and Bows while she worked there.

“She was always in the same room with me,” Griswold said.