Louisville, Ky. (WHAS-TV) -- A local daycare is under investigation by the state after it was discovered that a registered sex offender was working there.

It’s a parent’s worst nightmare; a convicted sex offender with a scary past working in their child’s daycare center.  Because of the investigation, parents are now pulling their children out of the facility. WHAS11 News also discovered that he’s not the only one with a criminal history working there. 

The man’s name is Joseph Gibson and he began working at The Growing Place child care center in the highlands about six weeks ago.  Gibson was fired Tuesday.  But that was just the beginning.

It takes a lot of trust to drop off one of the most important people in your life at preschool.  Parents of children who attend The Growing Place say that their trust was shattered when we told them about Joseph Gibson, who has been working around their children for hours every weekday.

Most parents didn’t know about Gibson, so we told them.  His criminal history shows he has been arrested for rape, assault, burglary and even escaping from prison.  He’s on the sex offender registry after being convicted of first degree sexual abuse back in 1997.

In addition to this, there have been a variety of other issues with The Growing Place.  These issues include having other employees with criminal histories.  Melissa Brown was fired after working for less than a week.  She was convicted of two counts of child abuse.  Rochelle Wilson was another convicted child abuser once employed there.

The center’s assistant director, Teresa Crawford, was convicted of credit card theft and was arrested for writing bad checks.  She knows Gibson well, since she’s married to him.  Despite the fact that they are husband and wife, Crawford claims she doesn’t exactly know the whole story concerning his past. But as of right now, Gibson is no longer an employee of The Growing Place.

The owner of the center, Loxi Foree, wouldn’t agree to an on-camera interview, but did terminate Gibson when state investigators visited the daycare center Tuesday.  Foree says her daycare center will continue to operate. 

There have been no allegations that Gibson harmed anyone while employed at the center.  The cabinet of Health and Family Services is investigating and any penalties will be decided after the investigation is over.