Teacher tells her side after preschool, daycare abruptly shut down

COLORADO SPRINGS, Co (KRDO) - For the first time since two childcare places were shut down for license violations, a teacher at Counterpoint preschool is speaking out about backlash she says has been misdirected.

Stephanie Kring worked at Counterpoint School, which wasn’t cited for any violations, for 5 years.

She says the rules the owner, Carla Faith, broke down the street at the Play Mountain Place daycare have had spiral effects on so many people.

"All of us are questioning… Parents, teachers -- how did we miss this? Her whole life was a giant facade and she was very dramatic in her playing of all of us that we never questioned it. She was so passionate and she spoke so well that she really manipulated every single one of us,” she said.

Stephanie Kring says management has been a brick wall since the closing.

She and the other Counterpoint teachers found out about the shutdown at 9 o'clock Thursday morning, after many of the children had already been dropped off.

"I didn't get briefed on what she did,” Stephanie said.

As parents came back to get their little ones, she told them the only information she was ever given: it was a licensing issue.

Now those teachers are fielding brutal questions from families that were once near and dear to their hearts.

"Were we involved in that? That one gets to me the most because I've made my career and these kids are my life,” said Stephanie.

Stephanie says Carla Faith had nothing to do with how the Counterpoint preschool operated day to day. She says Faith would sit in her office to do her finances “the old fashioned way,” then leave.

Still, the teachers say they’re feeling the wrath in connection to what happened at Play Mountain Place.

"It's gone national and now I'm under a sudden microscope when I did nothing wrong,” said Stephanie.

She says there's no way the teachers at Counterpoint could have possibly known about the situation at Play Mountain Place.

"We weren't really privileged to know. We worked at Counterpoint, we only showed up at Counterpoint. We knew that she had another center, but we didn't know of anything that was going on,” Stephanie explained.

Now that she knows about the reported crawl space full of toddlers without diaper changes, naps or good meals, it's left her mind reeling.

"I was disturbed. I still to this day am questioning what it looks like. I think I have this morbid picture in my head,” said Stephanie.

The Los Angeles Times reported multiple daycare centers Faith operated were shut down in the late 1990's; one housing more than 40 toddlers inside.

Stephanie says it's scary to think the state gave Carla Faith a license without realizing her past in California.

"If there was obviously a record of it happening before, what are we doing to miss that?”

Three of the workers at Play Mountain Place were charged with neglect, but those charges were dropped pending further investigation.

We’ve reached out to Carla Faith multiple times to get her side of the story, but still no response.