Heartspring employee filmed special-needs student showering, posted video on Snapchat
A Wichita woman who filmed a nonverbal special-needs student naked in the shower at her residential school and shared the video on Snapchat will serve three years of probation, according to court records and the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office.
Taylor C. Flowers was an employee of Heartspring, 8700 E. 29th St. N. in Wichita, last fall when she used her cellphone to film the 17-year-old girl from behind as she reached for a loofah while bathing. Flowers then shared the footage on the social media platform Snapchat with a caption that reportedly poked fun at the special-needs teen, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by The Eagle.
The video was brought to authorities’ attention by another Heartspring employee who saw and reported it on Nov. 17, 2020, records show.
Flowers, 22, was criminally charged earlier this year with sexual exploitation of a child for taking and sharing the video, which showed the girl’s nude back, buttocks and legs, the arrest affidavit says. She pleaded guilty on July 2 to an amended count of breach of privacy, a felony, and was sentenced in mid-August after attorneys involved in the case recommended she be placed on probation, court records show.
The presiding judge, Bruce Brown, followed the suggestions in her plea agreement, the district attorney’s spokesman Dan Dillon said. Although Flowers is on probation, the sentence has an underlying prison term of 34 months, which she could be ordered to serve if she gets into trouble at any point over the next three years.
Flowers’ attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
The affidavit released in the case details an egregious invasion of student privacy and illegal conduct by staff at one of the area’s best-known organizations for serving children with autism and other developmental disabilities.
And it may not have been the only incident.
According to the affidavit, Flowers told authorities she filmed the 17-year-old girl showering after she received a photo of a different student using the toilet from another Heartspring staff member — an incident the organization’s president and CEO Karina Forrest-Perkins told The Eagle was “investigated thoroughly and never confirmed” though parents were notified anyway.
Heartspring’s residential and day school is a year-round program that serves children ages 5 to 22 with developmental disabilities, including autism spectrum disorders. Currently, 69 students live in group homes and attend school on site. Six children attend the organization’s day-only school program.
As for Flowers and her conduct, Forrest-Perkins said Heartspring “acted swiftly” and removed her from her position “the same day the notice was brought to us.”
“We notified everybody the day we heard,” Forrest-Perkins said, including the girl’s family, the families of other students, Heartspring’s board of directors and leadership staff and the Kansas Department for Children and Families, the state’s child welfare agency.
“The individual in question never returned to our organization and ultimately separated from employment,” she said.
“It was an outrageous act ... against every value we hold at Heartspring.”
Forrest-Perkins said in response to the shower filming case, Heartspring “immediately banned all cell phone use” in areas where children are served, implemented “new restrictive policies regarding any video capable device,” and now has two employees monitor student bathing and other hygiene activities “to ensure this would never happen again.”
The organization also created an advisory council that gives families a chance to provide feedback and policy suggestions directly to Forrest-Perkins, she said.
Forrest-Perkins said students at the school and group homes are safe and that their privacy is respected and protected.
“The parents of the child in question have since become one of our most devoted families and have helped us mentor new families as they bring their children to Heartspring,” Forrest-Perkins said. “Our transparency and swiftness along with resolute policies and practices ensure the safety of our children now and in the future.”
According to the arrest affidavit, when Flowers was interviewed by a Wichita police detective last fall, she admitted that she had filmed the girl showering.
She told the detective the video was short — maybe five seconds long — and that “she did this after another employee had sent her a photograph” over Snapchat “of another student on the toilet,” the affidavit says.
She told the detective “she knew it wasn’t right” and had considered telling her superiors about the toilet photo.
But instead of reporting it, she took her own footage of the 17-year-old girl showering to send back to the other employee, the affidavit says Flowers told the detective.
She told the detective she accidentally posted the video to her Snapchat story and removed it when she discovered her mistake.
Flowers also told the detective “that she would be upset if it was her daughter and she would have never done it if she hadn’t received a video from the other employee and took it as a joke,” the affidavit says.
This story was originally published August 31, 2021 at 1:09 PM.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misspelled the name of Heartspring’s president and CEO.
