An Inglewood daycare center worker was fired after a video surfaced showing an aide throwing a shoe at a 5-year-old child.
In the video posted on social media, a woman standing on a chair takes off her sneakers and throws them across the room to a child crawling on the floor. There were two other adults in the room in the video.
The incident occurred on January 9 at the Destiny Development Center.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to,” the woman says in the video.
Danielle Williams, the center’s director, said in a video posted on social media that an investigation had been conducted and the three staff members involved had been fired.
“I understand the mother’s hurt and frustration,” she said. “I am a mother, a Black mother, a Black educator. At no time during the interviews and continued employment of our former staff member did staff suggest conduct toward this child or others in her care that would lead us to believe she would harm the child.”
Williams said the daycare continues to follow required procedures and has turned over the video footage to the state.
“Again we are deeply sorry, this was a horrific incident and it does not define our school,” she added. “It does not define what we stand for. It does not define what I have spent 15 years building.”
The child’s mother, Michelae Jones, told KTLA5 her daughter told her about the incident. She then confronted the daycare center director, but “the staff was slow to respond.”
“I’ve been with these guys for three years,” Jones told the station. “I really thought my kids were safe with them.”
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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
