Northbrook parents sue KinderCare, Glenview daycare over alleged harm to twins

GLENVIEW - A Northbrook couple is suing KinderCare Learning Companies and The Crème School in Glenview after they say their four-year-old twins were harmed by a daycare employee.

In February, the daycare contacted them within hours of an incident involving their son. But they tell FOX Chicago it would be nearly two months before they learned their daughter had also allegedly been harmed on the same day by the same employee. 

The former daycare worker now faces multiple misdemeanor battery charges and is due back in court in mid-August.

The backstory:

Nathan and Patrick Shine say their civil lawsuit goes beyond what happened inside their children’s classroom. They are demanding answers and accountability from the daycare and its parent company, KinderCare Learning Companies, alleging they weren’t given the full picture.  

"I think the piece that is incredibly frustrating is that to this day, no one from the facility has ever mentioned anything happened to our daughter," said Nathan Shine, father of the twins. "And then to learn that it was within essentially minutes of what happened to my son, it’s confusing, it’s angering."

According to the lawsuit and interviews with FOX Chicago, the couple first learned of the incident involving their son on Feb. 24, 2026. They say staff at The Crème School — also known as Crème de la Crème — notified them that a teacher had physically handled their son during nap time.

"I immediately went to pick my kids up because I was off work by then," said Patrick Shine, father of the twins.

Located in the 2400 block of Patriot Boulevard, Patrick says he arrived at the facility, where the daycare director showed him the surveillance video.

"My son was running around, it was nap time, and you could see the teacher get visibly frustrated, and she reached out and grabbed my son by the back of his hair and yanked him towards her. Then she picked him up by his neck and shoulders, and stood up and threw him onto his cot, which was about six inches off the ground," Patrick said. 

Patrick tells FOX Chicago that his son told another employee about what happened, which prompted the daycare director to review the footage.

According to The Crème School, the teacher was sent home that afternoon. The daycare also documented the incident in a written report provided to the family. 

The Shines filed a police report and say they took their son to the doctor.

Just as Patrick and Nathan say they thought they understood the full scope of the situation, the Glenview Police Department called them back on April 21.

According to court records and the family's account, Glenview police reviewed additional surveillance video. The Shines say the footage from the same classroom on the same day showed that their daughter was also allegedly harmed by the same employee — something they say had never been disclosed to them by the daycare.

"The executive director told my client, 'We reviewed this footage,'" said Steven Vanderporten, Shine family attorney and partner at Gould Grieco & Hensley. "Only for two months later, my clients find out their daughter was also attacked that very same day by the teacher from police — not from the daycare center, not from the mandatory reporters."

"They wanted me to come down and confirm and identify my daughter in the video," Patrick said. 

Patrick says the video, which FOX Chicago requested but has not been released by Glenview police, showed his son crying before the employee allegedly turned her attention to his daughter.

"And then you see the teacher sit down in between my son and my daughter on cots, and she starts pounding on my daughter’s back and covering her head with a blanket because my daughter was restless on the cot for nap time," Patrick said. "You can see the teacher getting visibly more and more upset and she ended up kicking my daughter’s cot across the room and picking up her stuffed animal and threw it at her head. Then she picked up my daughter’s shoe and threw it at her head."

Tahgred Mohamed, 54, of Des Plaines, has been charged with five counts of misdemeanor battery in connection with allegations involving both children — two counts in connection with the couple's son and three counts in connection with their daughter. 

Police records show Mohamed was processed and released pending further court proceedings.

On June 9, she appeared in court for a hearing on the latest charges involving the couple’s daughter.

Mohamed’s attorney has not returned our requests for comment on the allegations.  

Dig deeper:

On June 10, the Shines filed a civil lawsuit against KinderCare Learning Companies, Inc., Crème de la Crème, and Mohamed. 

Attorney Steven Vanderporten is representing the family in the civil case.

"My clients want accountability for what happened to their children and their family, but they also want to see that this doesn’t continue to happen to other kids and to other families," Vanderporten said. 

The 84-page lawsuit alleges negligence, negligent supervision, emotional distress, and other wrongdoing, accusing the defendants of failing to protect the children and properly investigate what happened.

Since 2022, Crème de la Crème has been owned by KinderCare Learning Companies, one of the nation's largest private childcare providers.

After reaching out to KinderCare Learning Companies and the daycare, a spokesperson with The Crème School confirmed Mohamed no longer works for them, releasing the following statement:

"The safety and well-being of all children in our care is our highest priority at The Crème School. The individual in question has not worked for us since February.

"When this concern was first raised in February, we took immediate action, including removing the employee from the classroom, informing the affected family and all classroom families and reporting the issue to the appropriate authorities. We cooperated fully with external investigations and conducted our own internal review.

"As a result of these investigations, we confirmed the employee’s conduct was not consistent with our standards of care and commitment to children and terminated the employment of that staff member in February. Since then, we further reinforced our commitment to child safety through additional staff training, policy reviews and enhanced classroom oversight."

The daycare disputes the family's claim that it knew about allegations involving their daughter from the beginning, writing: "We were not aware of those additional allegations on Feb. 24."

What they're saying:

A spokesperson with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) confirmed the agency’s involvement in the case, issuing this statement: "This is an open investigation with the DCFS Licensing and Child Protection teams."

A spokesperson with the Village of Glenview confirmed police investigated the incident and filed criminal charges in both cases.

The couple says they chose The Crème School because they trusted it to care for their children.

Now, they tell FOX Chicago they hope sharing their story will help prevent other families from finding themselves in a similar situation.

"This has been incredibly hard for me, for us, and I cannot fathom this happening to another family, I didn’t fathom it happening to us," Patrick said. 

What's next:

Mohamed is due back in court on Aug. 14 for a status hearing. 

Meanwhile, legal proceedings in the civil lawsuit against KinderCare Learning Companies and Crème de la Crème are just getting underway.