TALLADEGA, Ala. (WDNews) – Two employees of Precious Vessels Learning Center have been arrested after police say a child was slapped and two others were hit with a belt.
Precious Vessels Learning Center located in Talladega, Alabama has been placed on a 6-month probation while the Alabama Department of Human Resources investigates an incident from May in which surveillance cameras show an employee hit two 3-year-old children “multiple times” with a belt and another employee hit a child in the back of the head with an open hand.
The Talladega Police Department has identified Jasmine Ragland as the employee who used the belt to hit the children and Shirley Curry as the employee who slapped the child.
Ragland is facing a 3rd-degree assault charge and Curry has been charged with harrassment.
The incident unfolded in May when a Talladega mother, Lakkeria Swain, noticed a change in her son’s behavior while at 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“His behavior changed a lot, he would cry a lot, feeling withdrawn but I always thought it was because he wasn’t used to [day care]” Swain said.
Swain’s 3-year-old son Lexington has been identified as the child hit with the belt in the surveillance footage.
When Swain arrived to the daycare to pick her son up, she found him crying hysterically and holding his leg, which had welts from the belt.
“When I asked the teachers, no one could face me, until I went back the second time,” Swain said.
Swain is being represented by Rod Giddens, a former prosecutor.
“I would like to know what in the name of God gave them the right to treat 3-year-olds like this? It’s crazy,” Giddens said.
Swain says her son is traumatized by the events that unfolded.
Precious Vessels Learning Center and both employees have declined to comment.
