The controversial Chattanooga shelter housing unaccompanied migrant children for eight months placed 17 children in Tennessee, including one in Chattanooga and one in Cleveland, according to Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga.
Gardenhire presented the figures to Tennessee Department of Children’s Services Commissioner Jennifer Nichols during a Thursday afternoon hearing of the state’s special committee investigating migrants and refugees. Nichols could not confirm the data at the time.
The state senator said the level of public outcry over the shelter exceeded the number of children placed in Tennessee through the Chattanooga shelter operated by the Baptiste Group. The state suspended the organization’s child care license July 1 over safety concerns.
“That’s hardly enough to move the needle on something,” Gardenhire said. “That’s just my opinion.”
In a seven-minute back and forth, Gardenhire asked representatives from the Department of Children’s Services four times when the state first learned about possible child abuse at the facility. Court documents released from a closed-door hearing in July about the suspension showed the state declined to investigate a child abuse complaint against an employee at the shelter weeks before it acknowledged alleged abuse at the facility and a month before Chattanooga police charged that employee with sexual battery.