Austin PD Seeks Potential Daycare Sexual Assault Victims

AUSTIN, TX — The Austin Police Department is seeking help identifying children who may have been victimized following the arrest of a former preschool worker charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child, officials said Friday.

Members of the police department’s Tac Intel Unit arrested Steven Ahlberg, 20, on charges of Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Child, according to an advisory. Ahlberg was an employee of the Reggio Emilia Multilingual Preschool Academy located at 5710 McCarty Lane, police added.

As a result of the arrest, police ask that parents who had their children enrolled at the daycare center from October 2016 through December 2020 contact them if they have information about suspected physical or sexual abuse.

The arrest came after an outcry from an 8-year-old child in November that she had been sexually abused at the daycare by "Mr. Steven," police wrote in an advisory.

On Nov. 19, 2020, an 8-year-old child told her family that she had been sexually abused at her old daycare by “Mr. Steven” The girl told police of incidents occurring on multiple occasions happening between November 2017 and October 2018 when she was 5 years old, officials said.

A subsequent investigation revealed the victim was enrolled in Reggio Emilia Multilingual Preschool Academy during the specified time frame, according to the police account. Multiple sources confirmed that the only person a child at the daycare would know as “Mr. Steven” would have been Ahlberg, police added.

As a result of this investigation, the Department of Family Protective Services, Child Care Investigations barred Ahlberg from having access to the daycare or its children starting on Dec. 4. Police said Ahlberg agreed to a plan that prohibited him from having contact with and caring for children who attend or have attended Reggio Emilia. The same plan prohibited him from entering the daycare premises, police added.

Police said no other victims have come forward. Police offered guidance to parents on sparking conversations with potentially affected children related to sexual abuse:

"APD understands that some parents will want to start conversations with their children as a result of this information," police wrote. "If parents decide to start those conversations, APD recommends that they start as broad conversations about body safety. A parent might ask, for example, 'Do you know what parts of your body should stay private? If anybody ever did something that made you worried about those parts, you could talk to me. You wouldn’t be in any trouble.'

Moreover, police advised, it would not be ill-advised to single out Ahlberg or any other employee of the school in a direct question to a child. If the child brings a specific person up of their own accord, police said, then the parent could follow up on that information instead.

Police urge anyone with information about the physical or sexual abuse of children resulting from such parental inquiries to contact the police department's Child Abuse Unit at (512) 974-6880. Parents wishing to speak to a victim services counselor are directed to call (512) 974-5037.

The Austin Police Department has scheduled a 2 p.m. news conference in front of its headquarters building along with members of the Center for Child Protection. The presentation also will be provided in Spanish and broadcast via Periscope.

Patch will update with further details following the news conference.