A daycare in Alabama is on probation, and two employees have been arrested after police say one child was slapped and two others were struck with a belt.
According to the Alabama Department of Human Resources, Precious Vessels Learning Center is on probation for six months while it investigates an incident in May in which a staffer hit two 3-year-old children “multiple times” with a belt and another staffer hit a child in the back of the head with an open hand.
Talladega police identified the employee wearing the belt as Jasmine Ragland. She faces a third-degree assault charge.
According to Talladega police, Shirley Curry was the staff member who hit the child. She’s been charged with harassment. Lakkeria Swain stated that her 3-year-old son’s conduct changed throughout his stay at the daycare.
“His behavior changed a lot, he would cry a lot, feeling withdrawn but I always thought it was because he wasn’t used to [day care]” Swain told me.
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Her son, Lexington, is said to be one of the youngsters seen on security tape being slapped and struck with a belt.
“I would never think that was the reason because I thought that they would protect my baby, that was the last thing on my mind,” she recalled.
Swain brought up Lexington from daycare in mid-May, finding him screaming and grasping for his leg. “When I asked the teachers, no one could face me, until I went back the second time,” Swain said!
Swain claims that the second time she went to question daycare leaders, she was shown a security video of what had occurred.
In one camera recording, a woman identified by authorities as Curry is seen sitting in a chair at a table. Lexington is behind her, near to a shelving rack.
There’s no audio.
Curry, on a wheeled chair, rolls back and smacks Lexington twice. He reaches up to grab the side of his head.
In another video, Lexington can be seen climbing on top of a table. The second teacher, named by authorities as Ragland, is standing in the center of three tables.
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Curry takes up a belt, gestures at Ragland, and then returns it on the table. Ragland walks over, picks it up, and proceeds to Lexington.
According to authorities, Ragland then beat Lexington with the belt at least eight times.
He looks to be hit on his knees and the side of his legs as he steps away from the table. He then bends down, holds his legs, and rocks back and forth.
“It breaks my heart every time I look at it, I can’t even look at it because I just feel like I wish I was there to try to help him,” Swain told me. When Swain picked up her kid around 45 minutes after the incident, the mother saw swollen welts on his leg.
“That tells me there was some serious force,” Rod Giddens, a former prosecutor and Swain’s lawyer, said. He said the footage was unlike anything he had ever seen.
“I’d like to know what in God’s name gave them the authority to treat three-year-olds like this. “It’s crazy,” Giddens added.
Swain stated that her son is traumatized by what transpired. “If I put on his belt in his pants, he would kind of back up like he was in trouble, but then I have to tell him, ‘You’re not in trouble,'” he added. “So, I try not to have belts around.”
Giddens stated that if Curry and Ragland are convicted, they could face jail time.
“Many of these situations lack video evidence, so it’s he said she said. “This is exactly what happened; you can’t lie your way out of this one,” he stated. A spokeswoman for Precious Vessels Learning Center said they have no comment on the subject.
Curry and Ragland declined to speak during their recent court appearances.