Daycare sued for abuse of child

NORTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, Fla. (WSVN) -- A mother plans to file a lawsuit against a daycare, and, she says, she has the video capturing several shocking scenes to prove her case.

Lawyers for Trina Jackson  received the surveillance video after they requested it from the J. Ruiz Learning School, LLC on Northwest 22nd Avenue and 41st Street. On the video, a teacher can be seen punching a boy in the face, and that was not all. "In the video, it shows little girls jumping on my daughter actually ripping her hair out," said Jackson.

The lawyers were interested in the scuffle, which happened in April, where, Jackson said, her 4-year-old daughter had one of her braids pulled right out of her hair. The mother said the school's explanation never added up after she complained about marks she found on her child after leaving her at the daycare. "I look at my daughter, and I trust what she says now, and I back her up 100 percent," Jackson said.

The owner of the J. Ruiz Learning School refused to comment on the allegations and even called Miami-Dade Police to his business to make sure no one confronts him to get an explanation, Tuesday afternoon.

Jackson said, her daughter's caretaker told her the scuffle never happened. "She said, 'She came to school like that. Nobody pulled her hair,'" the mother recalled.

The video, however, clearly contradicts that claim, as it shows a daycare worker roughly checking the girl's scalp. "She grabs her head, as if she's inspecting a cantaloupe or something," said Christopher Wadesworth, the attorney hired to handle the case.

The mother said it was not the first time her daughter came home with marks and accused the daycare worker if mistreating her child. However, the concerns were always dismissed by the center's director. "Now it's like I have proof to say, 'OK, why did you lie to me all these times,'" Jackson said, "'even past incidents that I have brought up to you?'"

The video also showed that boy being struck and a little girl hit forcefully across the hand. The damaging daycare footage showed more than the attorneys ever expected to see. "That's 26 minutes of the video that they chose to send to us that they thought would convince us to drop the case," Wadesworth said. "I can only think what would have happened if we'd seen the whole eight-hour day."

"I don't even treat my kids like that," added Jackson. "I don't think they should be treated like that, any child."

Jackson has since taken her daughter to another school.

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