How Could You? Hall of Shame-Katherine Taylor-Burroughs and Tennyson Center for Children Closes
This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.
From Denver, Colorado, residential home counselor, Katherine Taylor-Burroughs, 32, “is charged with four counts of sexual assault of a child by a person in a position of trust and defined as a “pattern of abuse,” a felony” “after a 15-year-old boy living in the residential program revealed they had a sexual relationship”in December 2025.
“The teen said he was sexually assaulted by the counselor four times in the center’s basement and reported they shared lewd messages via Snapchat, according to an arrest affidavit.”
Hundreds of calls to Colorado child abuse hotline from youth treatment centers go uninvestigated
[The Colorado Sun 6/8/26 by Jennifer Brown]
“Tennyson Center for Children is shutting down its residential treatment program because of a staffing shortage, and after staff injuries and a former employee’s alleged sexual relationship with one of the teenagers at the center, The Colorado Sun has learned.
The remaining handful of children and teens in the residential center will move to other facilities or group homes by the end of the month. Tennyson will continue operating its day treatment, school and in-home family support programs that serve about 1,000 families, its leadership said.
The closure is due to the “broader workforce challenges” at residential treatment programs for young people in Colorado that made it clear that “staffing would become unsustainable,” Tennyson’s president and CEO Mindy Watrous said via email after declining to give an interview.
She said the “difficult decision” to close the residential program was not related to the allegation that a former staff member in the residential program was having sex with a 15-year-old boy living at Tennyson.
It’s the second time in five years that Tennyson has closed its residential program, last time in 2021 after a 12-year-old boy ran away from the Denver center and died after he was struck by a car. [That would be the Timothy Montoya-Kloepfel and Andrew Potter death cases]
The center reopened its residential program in 2024.
When leadership learned of the alleged sexual relationship in November, they immediately reported it to law enforcement and the Colorado Department of Human Services, which has oversight of residential treatment centers for children in foster care and with severe behavioral health issues, Watrous said. Tennyson was not found at fault by state child welfare officials, according to the Colorado Association of Family and Children’s Agencies, which includes Tennyson. 
[Of course not!]
“We cannot discuss details, but we can share that the staff member was immediately removed from campus and we are cooperating fully with the investigation,” Watrous said. “The safety and well-being of the young people in Tennyson’s care and of our providers are our top priorities.”
She said the center has “consistently met or exceeded staffing ratios” required by state law, but two former employees told The Sun that the residential program was so short staffed that kids are lacking adequate supervision. Employees were frequently injured in attempts to physically restrain teens who were acting out violently, and leadership was offering overtime pay to cover shifts for employees who had quit or couldn’t work due to injury, they said.
Tennyson said it would not discuss staff’s “personal health information” but said “many of the injuries were not related to client care.”
Katherine Taylor-Burroughs, 32, was charged in December with four counts of sexual assault of a child by a person in a position of trust and defined as a “pattern of abuse,” a felony. A 15-year-old boy told detectives he had sex with Taylor-Burroughs, a youth treatment counselor at Tennyson, four times in the center’s basement, according to an arrest affidavit The Sun received from the Denver District Attorney’s Office. The boy and Taylor-Burroughs also had “phone sex” and sent messages via Snapchat, he told detectives.
Denver Police found and reviewed 271 text messages between the teen and the youth counselor before the two switched to communicating on Snapchat, a messaging app in which messages delete after they are sent.
The teen eventually told a gym teacher about the situation, which led to informing the police. Taylor-Burroughs’ attorney did not return a request for comment.”
[The Colorado Sun 5/15/26 by Jennifer Brown]
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