On January 17, a video was leaked to the public that showed a daycare worker allegedly abusing a little girl.
According to Lubbock Online, the video was taken inside a cafeteria at a My Little Playhouse in Lubbock, Texas.
The video shows a woman pulling the young girl’s hair when she wouldn’t eat her breakfast. The 3-year-old appeared to be none responsive during the entire clip.
Watch the video below:
The parents of the little girl said the daycare never made them aware of the video, adding that they only saw the clip after it was leaked to the public.
Amyra Wilson’s mom, LaQuitta, told KAMC that the My Little Playhouse daycare also didn’t have anything to say to her when she confronted them about the video:
“She was physically abused by an adult and someone that we paid to place for her safety. They had no apology. They had no reason. They did not call me. Like I said, everything hit the fan and it’s like they just had nothing to say.”
LaQuitta said that her daughter didn’t suffer any injuries from the actions that were caught on camera. Nonetheless, the mother isn’t pleased with how the daycare handled the situation.
According to KAMC, although the video was just recently made public, the events took place weeks ago.
Police told Lubbock Online that they are currently investigating the alleged abuse, and so is the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (TDFPS).
Paul Zimmerman, a spokesman for TDFPS, said that “investigators will turn over the results of their investigation to the Department of Health and Human Services, which handles licenses for child care providers.”
According to Lubbock Online, My Little Playhouse has received 20 violations in the last three years. Some of those violations included “caregivers not knowing how many children were under their care at the time of the inspections.”
However, none of the violations in the last three years involved abuse claims.
A short statement from the daycare was released to the public on Thursday, it read:
“The owners and Directors of My Little Playhouse Learning Center LLC were made aware of video footage posted on social media at approximately 11:45 a.m. Staff involved were fired immediately. Local authorities (LPD) has been notified and are investigating accordingly. Texas Department of Childcare Licensing has also been notified.”
Yet, regardless of the fact that the employees in question were fired, Amyra’s father says he and his family are taking legal action on behalf of their daughter.
He told KAMC:
“We want any legal action that can happen, anything that actually happened to her, like jail time.”
And Amyra’s grandmother hopes that by telling her granddaughter’s story this never happens to another child again.
In some words of advice to other parents with children in daycare, the grandmother said, “Make sure that the people that are working there has no criminal background because if they’ll do it to a child, they’ll do it to the elderly. So we just want to make sure this never happens to another child.”