OGDEN PRESCHOOL WORKER PLEADS GUILTY TO CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE, VICTIM'S FAMILY FILES CIVIL SUIT AGAINST PROGRESSIVE SCHOOL

he parents of a five-year-old child who was sexually abused by an employee of Progressive Preschool & Child Care Center in Ogden, Utah, have filed a civil suit.

SALT LAKE CITY, UT, UNITED STATES, January 24, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The parents of a five-year-old child who was sexually abused by an employee of Progressive Preschool & Child Care Center in Ogden, Utah, while at Elite Gymnastics have filed a civil suit. The lawsuit (Case No. 240906266) was filed in the Second Judicial District Court.

In the related criminal proceeding, Tanner Dobson, an employee of Progressive Preschool in Ogden, has been charged criminally in connection with this incident in State v. Tanner Wayne Dobson, Case No. 241900099. On January 8, 2025, Tanner Dobson pled guilty to (1) Aggravated Sexual Abuse of a Child, and (2) Aggravated Sexual Exploitation of a Child, which are first-degree felonies, and will be sentenced on March 16, 2025. Additionally, Dobson admits that he distributed child pornography.

Dobson will serve at least 15 years, which is the mandatory minimum. In the Plea Agreement, Dobson admitted that he took “the student of the daycare where [he] was teaching during gymnastics class and took her aside and caused her to undress and took pictures of her and touched her in the private area. I then told her not to tell anyone.”

“This is just the beginning of accountability for those involved,” said Bronson D. Bills, attorney for the victim’s family, of the law firm of Parker & McConkie. “We believe that, in addition to the perpetrator, other representatives of Progressive Preschool and Elite Gymnastics negligently repeatedly failed to protect this child and bear responsibility for these horrible crimes.”

According to the allegations in the Amended Complaint, Tanner was employed by Progressive Preschool & Child Care Center and was the five-year-old’s teacher. Progressive Preschool & Child Care Center had a program with Elite Gymnastics and would bring students to Elite Gymnastics for weekly gymnastics lessons. Tanner separated the minor child from the other students at Elite Gymnastics and sexually molested the child. Another employee of Progressive Preschool & Child Care Center overheard the comments made by the five-year-old about Tanner and called the police, which led to Tanner’s arrest and confession.

The lawsuit alleges that the owners of Progressive Preschool & Child Care Center negligently employed and retained Tanner as an employee, despite multiple previous complaints of abuse and/or improper behavior with children in his care. Prior to this incident, at least four (4) other complaints had been filed against Tanner Dobson with the State of Utah by parents of students at Progressive Preschool & Child Care Center, alleging inappropriate conduct by Tanner Dobson. Despite these complaints and concerns, Progressive continued to employ Tanner. Tanner’s employment at the school and daycare allowed Tanner access to young children and permitted Tanner to use his position to target and groom the five-year-old. Tanner’s employment at Progressive Preschool & Child Care Center provided him the opportunity to build a relationship of trust with the five-year-old, which allowed the sexual abuse to happen.

“The parent’s lawsuit not only seeks to hold those responsible for failing their child accountable, but they hope that it will raise awareness and prevent this from happening again; additionally, the parents hope the suit can be a catalyst for change in how these incidents are investigated,” said Mr. Bills.

Regarding the purpose of the lawsuit, the victim’s parents, who wish to remain anonymous to protect the identity of their child, provided the following statement:

“Progressive and Elite failed to keep our child safe. We hope no other child or parent will experience what our family has experienced. We want those who hurt and failed our child to be held accountable. We also want to ensure that this will never happen again. We hope that our civil case will shine additional light on Progressive and encourage anyone who may know anything about this incident, or any other such incident, to come forward. We also hope that if anyone else was a victim of abuse at Progressive, they will come forward as well.”

Full documents are available here: https://www.parkerandmcconkie.com/blog/ogden-preschool-worker-pleads-guilty-to-sexual-abuse-of-child-victims-family-files-civil-lawsuit-against-progressive-preschool/

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David Watkins
Otter PR
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