After calls from parents, Port Royal police investigate conduct of ex-preschool worker
Prompted by calls from worried parents, police have opened an investigation into an ex-preschool employee’s actions during his months working at the local childcare facility in the town, according to Port Royal police.
The former Sea Island Sprouts preschool employee, 38-year-old St. Helena Island resident Brandon Scott Baker, already faces three state charges for allegedly possessing child sexual abuse material, more commonly known as child pornography. Baker had also been federally charged in Iowa with sexual exploitation of children.
Officers in Port Royal received two reports requesting a probe into the workplace conduct of Baker, who was arrested on the campus of Sea Island Sprouts in late January, according to Capt. Norman McCown of the Port Royal Police Department.
Along with a federal charge in Iowa, Baker faces three state charges related to the alleged possession of child sexual abuse material, more commonly known as child pornography.
A log of the department’s calls on Monday says “concerned parents of students and former students” at Sea Island Sprouts contacted police. Following Baker’s arrest at the preschool during morning dropoff on Jan. 27, the parents “noted concerning behavior and wished to have law enforcement follow up,” the log says. Parents also requested that police investigate whether Baker had sexually abused any children under his care, according to the log.
Baker had worked at the preschool since at least early May, according to previous reporting from The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette. The school opened not long before that; records from the South Carolina Secretary of State show the business was registered in December 2024.
In a Wednesday morning press release, the PRPD said it had not received any complaints or allegations concerning Baker prior to his arrest. Officers were now investigating one report of “suspicious actions” related to the employee, according to the release.
“The Port Royal Police Department takes any allegation involving harm to a child very seriously,” the press release said. “We encourage anyone with information or concerns to report them promptly.”
Baker faces local, state and federal investigations
The investigation by Port Royal police adds to the growing list of cases across the country involving Baker.
Baker was first arrested Jan. 27 by the S.C. Attorney General’s Office on three state charges involving the alleged possession or exchanging of child sexual abuse material. His arrest warrants allege the crime took place in his St. Helena home as early as Nov. 15.
Three days later, he was federally charged with sexual exploitation of children in Iowa as agents with Homeland Security Investigations arrested him again and prepared to extradite him across the country. A male told a Homeland Security agent he had a “sexual relationship” with Baker when the victim was a minor in 2013, according to the criminal complaint. Baker was 26 at the time. Nude photos of the minor were allegedly found during a search of Baker’s home and workplace in Colorado more than a decade later.
Baker worked at another preschool in Telluride, Colorado, where authorities searched his home, school and car in April 2024, seizing cameras, computers, pornographic magazines and a stockpile of SD cards and USB drives, according to court documents.
McCown, of the PRPD, declined to answer questions from The Island Packet on Tuesday afternoon about how the local investigation would be conducted, who police would interview and how long the process could take.
Parents searching for answers
Over a dozen families and four employees left Sea Island Sprouts in the wake of Baker’s arrest, a parent told The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette. Many expressed concerns that the school’s background check process had not caught Baker’s ongoing investigation in Colorado, when news and a press release about that case were available online.
Still, other parents have rallied in support of the preschool, which serves children ages 1 through 4. They claim it was “the system” that failed their children, not the school itself.
“Regardless if somebody is charged, they should be flagged so it doesn’t happen again. That’s the biggest thing here,” parent Morgan Sutcliff Herndon told the newspapers, arguing that any active investigation should be included in the scope of a criminal background check.
Although the school claimed to “strictly adhere” to a two-teacher supervision policy in all classrooms, parents in the wake of Baker’s arrest have grappled with questions about what could have happened to their children under his care.
In a Jan. 28 email, Sea Island Sprouts administrators told parents that based on their limited information from police, “there is no indication that any children at Sea Island Sprouts were involved.”
Port Royal police’s investigation remained active as of Tuesday afternoon. The department had not yet fulfilled a request for the incident reports filed by parents at the preschool.
This story was originally published February 10, 2026 at 4:07 PM.
