The owner of the center has maintained that the video looks worse than what happened. However, the child reportedly broke his foot at the center that day.
Editor's note: This article was originally published on February 12, 2020. It has since been updated.
When we leave our children with daycare centers or childcare personnel, we put a lot of trust in them to keep our kids safe and protected. It's hard to leave our young kids even for a few minutes, but when we have to leave them for hours to go to work, we hope that the place we are trusting lives up to the standards they tout. However, there are always some horror stories that we get to hear of once in a while that makes our blood run cold.
In a CCTV footage from a daycare center, Special Angels Outreach care center in Luling, Louisiana, from January 13, 2020, a daycare worker can be seen dragging a little boy by the arm across the floor. Stephanie Kidd, the mother of the child, called the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office after another employee at the center showed her the video of her 1-year-old toddler, Carson, being dragged down the hall, according to WGN9.
"I had to tell myself don’t watch this video because it's hard to watch," Stephanie, a mother of three, said. "I couldn’t even breathe. Be careful who you trust your kids with," she added.
The woman who is seen dragging the boy is the owner of the center. She defended herself against the accusations while investigations are ongoing. "I did handle that wrong, it wasn’t malicious and it wasn’t deliberate," she told WWLTV. "There wasn’t intent to abuse, I’m not a child abuser."
In the video, the daycare employee can be seen holding the child by one arm and dragging him aggressively across the hall to another room. The child's mother also claimed that her boy had fractured her foot the same day and wasn't able to walk while the lady dragged him. However, the owner of the center said that the boy hurt his foot later in the day after the video was recorded.
"I was bringing him he was walking at first but he had just started walking and I guess I was going a little too fast for him or whatever, he went kind of to his knees and he was whining," the owner told WGN9.
The owner of the center, meant for children with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities as well as fully-functioning children, feels that the video has been edited to make it look worse than the situation was. She has been defending herself against the accusations and tried to explain what exactly happened.
"It was like a lift and set down, lift and set down," she said. "The floors are slippery, and the kids they drag themselves around when they’re playing and they enjoy it," she told WWLTV.
Meanwhile, the video went viral and Stephanie shared it on her social media as well. In a Facebook post, the irate mother wrote, "I am reaching out for help. Who do you go to for help with child neglect/abuse cases in a daycare, when the parish is known for dusting these matters under the rug. Police report has been made. CPS is involved and doing their investigation but law enforcement is a joke! Parish is protecting their name and businesses. What about my son who is not even 2 yet! Please share. I NEED HELP!!"
She shared multiple videos of the day. In one of them, the boy can be seen with one leg resting on a cushion. In one part of the video, the woman seems to be holding him up by both his arms.
In one of her Facebook posts, she said, "Police say they have nothing they can criminally charge."
References:
https://wgntv.com/2020/01/31/video-shows-day-care-owner-dragging-child-down-hall-tmw/
Representative Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by Jasmin Merdan
