Week after worker’s child porn arrest in Port Royal, parents say system, not school, failed
A week after the child pornography possession arrest of Brandon Scott Baker at the beloved Port Royal preschool where he worked, a group of parents is rallying to the school’s defense, arguing it is top-notch and shouldn’t be ruined over one incident they claim wasn’t its fault.
Despite the questions raised by the case, the group of parents has refused to pull their children from the preschool after meeting with owner Joey Dunkle last week.
That meeting and their own investigation makes supporters confident the school met requirements for a state-mandated background check of Baker. The background check, the parents insist, did not turn up any information that Baker had been investigated, but not charged, in Telluride, Colorado in 2024 after similar allegations arose. Baker was a teacher at a Telluride preschool at the time.
“I personally think the system has failed our children,” Morgan Sutcliff Herndon said as she picked up her daughter from the Port Royal school Tuesday.
To Herndon and other parents, the fact that the Colorado investigation wasn’t flagged in the South Carolina background check is the larger issue going forward for schools and other facilities that must review the histories of potential employees. It did not show up in the background investigation, the parents say, because Baker wasn’t charged or fingerprinted. The investigation into the Colorado matter is ongoing.
“Regardless if somebody is charged, they should be flagged so it doesn’t happen again,” Herndon said. “That’s the biggest thing here.”
“Why can’t an arrest show up on a background check?” added Colleen, another parent with a child enrolled at the school who declined to give her last name.
The Telluride, Colo. Marshal’s Department searched Baker’s residence on April 20, 2024. But while he was detained and questioned at the Telluride Marshal’s Department while evidence was seized, he was later released, according to the Telluride Times.
Licensed child care providers in South Carolina are required to complete comprehensive background checks. That includes being fingerprinted by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division to determine any state criminal history. The fingerprints are also used to do an FBI background check for other criminal history. A search of the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) National Sex Offender Registry and the state sex offender registry also is required.
The FBI fingerprint background checks in South Carolina are completed by Identigo, a third-party vendor, under a contract with the state’s Materials Management Office, according to South Carolina Department of Social Services, which oversees preschools. Many state agencies utilize the contract for their FBI background check fingerprinting needs.
DSS told the Beaufort Gazette and Island Packet it is aware of the pending charges against Baker. The agency said it couldn’t discuss “any possible investigation, if it exists,” by DSS.
The DSS said it would not confirm whether the required background checks were completed on Baker because it involved hiring records of the school. The newspapers have submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for the information.
Several months before Baker was arrested on child pornography charges, the Port Royal preschool was cited by the DSS for three incomplete employee background checks, according to state inspection reports.
Parents who continue to back Sea Island Sprouts school say even that information doesn’t tell the full story. In those three cases, the background checks were eventually completed, they said.
Brooke, another parent with a child at the school, also said turnover at local daycares is high. It’s not uncommon for daycare facilities to have employees begin work on a conditional or provisional basis while the background checks are still partially completed.
The DSS said “provisional hires” previously were allowed at child care facilities to employ a staff member before all background checks were finalized. But they were outlawed in 2019 and are now only allowed after a favorable completion of fingerprint-based portion of the background check and with approval of the DSS.
Brooke toured area preschools and chose Sea Islands Sprouts after ranking it as the No. 1 school where she felt her daughter would be safe.
“If this school shuts down,” Brook said, “it’s going to leave huge impacts on the families within this community.”
She says background checks in the future should include “anything pending in the system.”
“If they don’t, we’re going to have situations like these pop up,” Brooke said.
Baker, 38, of St. Helena Island was arrested Jan. 27 by state Attorney General’s Office and charged with one count of second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor and two counts of the same charge in the third degree. The charges are related to distributing and possessing files of child sexual abuse material.
Investigators in the Attorney General’s Office, who are a part of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, made the arrest with assistance from the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office and Homeland Security, said Robert Kittle, a spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office.
The task force acted after receiving a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. It is not uncommon to receive tips from the organization when child sexual material is uploaded, Kittle said. Baker’s IP address was tracked to his home.
“In this case, there was also a search warrant for where he worked, and he was there and that’s where he was arrested,” Kittle said.
Baker was released from the Beaufort County jail Jan. 29 on cash bonds totaling $100,000, according to court records.
Parents sing the praises of the school, which accepts kids ages 1-4. They tout its educational focus and curriculum that incorporates outdoor activities and art.
“There’s not enough daycare in this town and this school is amazing,” said Herndon.
“We don’t want to see this school be ruined because of one incident,” she added.
Parents gathered with the Port Royal preschool owners late last week to learn more about what happened. Herndon says 20 to 30 families attended. They were told the required background checks on Baker were conducted.
“They are deeply hurt by this also. Their children go to this school,“ Herndon said.
Dunkle, the owner, has not publicly shared any information about the situation. He did not return a telephone call from the Beaufort Gazette and Island Packet.
Some 14 families and four employees have left the school, said Colleen, the mother of a 2-year-old who moved to the area just weeks ago from Georgia.
“What happened is a judicial problem and not a background check problem,” she says.
This story was originally published February 5, 2026 at 4:30 AM.
