A daycare employee was caught on surveillance footage aggressively tossing a toddler into scalding water after changing his diaper – and his mom is taking action.
Sharece Besley sued the Young Mindz Learning Academy in Dekalb County, Georgia, for dumping her nine month old son in scalding hot water and holding him there for three minutes.
The surveillance footage revealed the employee harshly placed Virgil, Besley’s child, on a changing table before ripping his diaper off.
The employee then put Virgil in a sink filled with piping hot water for several minutes, while other children ran around the area.
The toddler needed medical attention and was left with second-degree burns after the shocking incident.
It wasn’t until the employee took Virgil out of the water that she realized the child was in pain.
She was seen running around the daycare talking to other employees in a state of panic when she realized the harm she’d done.
Besley told local ABC affiliate, WSBTV News, that her son struggled to recover from the burns, adding that it hurt him to urinate or when she tried to change his diaper.
The unnamed employee was caught on surveillance footage aggressively bathing the child in scalding hot water
The adorable toddler’s mom, Sharece Besley, wants justice for her son after the shocking daycare incident
She said that Virgil had blisters from the water and she had to watch as medical staff popped them.
‘No amount of pain medicine could help him,’ she tearfully admitted to the outlet.
Besley hired Georgia injury attorney, Michael Neff to help her seek justice for her child against the daycare facility.
‘No parent should have to fear for their child’s safety when they leave childcare. What happened to Virgil never should have happened. Our lawsuit seeks justice for Virgil,’ Neff said in a statement to Dailymail.com.
Neff said that the Young Mindz Learning Academy had not only failed to protect Virgil but violated other policies that day.
The daycare’s policy is to use wet wipes while changing a child’s diaper, but the employee ignored that and decided to bathe Virgil instead.
Daycares are also required to have children under three in a separate area, another policy Young Mindz violated.
‘I just never in a million years thought something like this would happen,’ Besley recalled to WSBTV.
Besley tearfully recalled the pain her toddler was in after he suffered second-degree burns at a daycare facility
The employee violated policy when she aggressively changed the child’s diaper, slapping his thighs and tossing him into scalding hot water
Young Mindz Learning Academy is a childcare provider in Decatur, Georgia, which is northeast of Atlanta
The Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning investigated the incident and issued the facility a notice of an enforcement fine.
‘The findings of this investigation substantiated that serious rule violations occurred which jeopardized the health and safety of a child in care,’ the notice read.
The notice detailed the gruesome scalding and noted that the toddler was spanked on his legs while the employee put his diaper on.
The department accused the daycare of violating two rules relating to inflicting abuse on a child and endangering their health and safety, resulting in a $499 fine.
The state warned that if corrective actions weren’t put in place, Young Mindz could lose it’s license.
Since the incident, the facility hasn’t had any enforcement actions and passed their last monitoring visit on February 19.
Early Care and Learning gave the facility two quality rating stars and designated the daycare in good standing with the state.
The employee who was accused of burning Virgil was arrested and charged with cruelty to children after the incident.
Neff said he will move to have the case heard in front of a jury to further hold Young Mindz accountable for their actions.
‘We hope a just verdict will serve to remind day care centers of their commitment to keeping children safe,’ Neff added.
Dailymail.com reached out to the Young Mindz Learning Academy and the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning for comments but didn’t immediately hear back.
