A worker at a California daycare center appeared to throw a shoe at a 5-year-old special needs child during a Jan. 16 incident, surveillance video obtained by KTLA shows.
In the surveillance video, the daycare worker removes her shoe and appears to throw it across the classroom, where it hits the special needs child. The child begins to cry as the same daycare worker makes her way over to her. Two other daycare workers can be seen sitting in the back of the classroom, and one of them appears to laugh as the child cries.
Michelae Jones, who KTLA identified as the child’s mother, expressed outrage over the incident.
“I’ve been with these people for three years,” Jones told the outlet’s Carlos Saucedo. “I really thought my baby was safe with them.”
Jones claimed that her daughter told her of the incident on the night it occurred. Jones confronted the director of the daycare center following the child’s disclosure, but alleged the staff was slow to respond. Jones said she was able to view the daycare’s surveillance footage two weeks after the incident.
Kira Townsend, identified by KTLA as the child’s aunt, questioned how often the daycare center is reviewing its surveillance footage.
“I want to know how often are they reviewing the footage? How do you have a business and you don’t review the footage unless a parent says something? Why do we have to wait for my niece to come and tell us, ‘Hey, my teacher hit me in the ear with a shoe,’” Townsend said.
Jones said the daycare center’s director, Danielle Williams, reportedly claimed the worker was “throwing shoes into another room that weren’t supposed to be there and [the child] accidentally got hit in the head with the shoe.” (RELATED: Good Samaritan Picks Up Woman On Side Of Road. His Friend Left Car Because Of Her Weird Behavior. He Never Made It Out Alive)
The Destiny Development Center is a daycare and preschool based in Inglewood, California. The center’s mission is to “expose children to a loving educational environment. To provide each child with love, respect, and safety. To provide stimulating learning experiences for each child with age-appropriate challenges. To encourage physical, emotional, intellectual, and social growth,” according to its website.
While the worker who allegedly assaulted the child and the two other workers who witnessed the incident have all been fired, Jones said she wants to see criminal charges filed.
“You need to be in jail like any other child abuser,” she said. “That’s what I want. Justice.”
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LACSD) is investigating the incident, according to KTLA.
The Daily Caller contacted the LACSD and the Destiny Development Center, neither of whom immediately commented on the incident.