A mother is suing a Georgia daycare after an employee was caught on surveillance footage aggressively placing her baby into hot water after changing his diaper.
Sharece Besley filed the lawsuit against the Young Mindz Learning Academy in Dekalb County, Georgia, for dumping her nine-month-old son in scalding hot water and holding him burnt for three minutes.
Surveillance footage showed the employee harshly placing Besley’s child, Virgil, on a changing table before ripping off the baby’s diaper.
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She then put Virgil in a sink filled with hot water for many minutes, while other kids were seen running around the area.
According to reports, Besley’s child was left with second-degree burns after the shocking incident.
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After she found out Virgil had suffered burns, she ran around the daycare talking to other employees in a state of panic, knowing consequences were coming.
Besley said local ABC affiliate, WSBTV News, that her son struggled to recover from the burns, adding that her boy was in pain anytime she had to change his diaper or help him urinate.
The unhappy mother added that Virgil had blisters from the water as she had to watch medical staff pop them.
‘No amount of pain medicine could help him,’ she told the outlet in tears.
After she found out about the incident, Besley hired Georgia injury attorney, Michael Neff to help 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 told Daily Mail.
The attorney added that the Young Mindz Learning Academy had not only failed to protect Virgil but also violated several policies that day.
The policy of the daycare is to use wet wipes when changing a baby’s diaper, yet the employee instead chose to bathe Virgil.
Also, Daycares are expected to have children under three in a separate area, and that was yet another policy Young Mindz violated.
‘I just never in a million years thought something like this would happen,’ Besley recalled to WSBTV.
The Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning looked into the incident and served 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 its license.
Since the incident, the facility hasn’t had any enforcement actions and passed its 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 however 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.
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‘We hope a just verdict will serve to remind day care centers of their commitment to keeping children safe,’ Neff added.
