Daycare workers in Inglewood were fired after a video surfaced showing an aide throwing a shoe at a 5-year-old.
In the video posted on social media, a woman standing on a chair removes her sneaker and throws it across the room at a child crawling on the ground. Two other adults were also in the room in the video.
The incident occurred Jan. 9 at Destiny Development Center.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to do it,” the woman said in the video.
Danielle Williams, the center’s director, said in a video posted on social media that an investigation was conducted and that the three staff members involved were fired.
“I understand the hurt, frustration of the mother,” she said. “I’m a mother, a Black mother, a Black educator. During the interview with our previous employee and continued employment, the staff never presented behaviors to this child or others in her care that would warrant us to assume that she would harm a child.”
Williams said that the day care continues to follow required procedure and has turned the video footage over to the state.
“Again, we are deeply sorry, and this is a terrible incident, and it does not define our school,” she added. “It does not define what we stand for. It does not define what I’ve taken 15 years to build.”
The child’s mother, Michelae Jones, told KTLA5 that her daughter told her about the incident. She then confronted the director of the daycare but “staff members were slow to respond.”
“I’ve been with these people for three years,” Jones told the station. “I really thought my baby was safe with them.”
