Two daycare workers arrested from center with numerous complaints

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The Department of Social Services headquarters, located near Bull Street in Columbia. File/Leah Hincks/Staff.

SPARTANBURG — Two former workers at the same daycare center were arrested separately this week, one for forging nine new employees' background checks and another for harming a child, authorities say.

Theresa Lea Foster, the former director of the Blue Marble Academy in Boiling Springs, was arrested after an investigation by the state Department of Social Services found that the new employee background checks she provided were fraudulent.

Separately, a former employee of the same center was arrested this week after a traffic stop revealed an outstanding warrant from October 2022 for unlawful neglect of a child.

Police say Mickela Smith jerked a child's arm and shoved him while escorting him to an area of the classroom to be punished, placing the child at "unreasonable risk of harm," an incident report from the Spartanburg County Sheriff's office says.

The investigation into Foster's alleged forgery began after DSS received a complaint July 26 that the daycare, Big Blue Marble Academy, had "unqualified caregivers with no criminal background checks."

State law requires that all employees at licensed childcare facilities undergo a state fingerprint-based background check and search through multiple state and national databases.

Foster confessed to investigators, according to arrest documents.

It is unclear whether Smith was one of the employees whose background check was forged by Foster. DSS declined to comment, citing the ongoing investigation.

The daycare in Boiling Springs is one Big Blue Marble Academy location of many across the east coast. DSS has investigated 10 complaints regarding this location since its opening in 2020, many related to direct supervision of children and adequate ratios of workers to children.

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