A daycare teacher was arrested and a mother wants answers after her son was bitten nearly a dozen times at a Bradenton daycare.
Caci Burke, 23, was arrested on September 6 and charged with child neglect without great bodily harm. Burke bonded out on Wednesday, September 7.
WHAT HAPPENED?
Amanda Beebe tells ABC Action News she got a call from the daycare last week saying her child was bitten by another child and needed to be picked up.
In all, there were more than a dozen bite marks to the 18-month-old's face, arm, leg and back.
Beebe tells us when she was in shock when she saw her son, "his face, the side of it was swollen," she said, "I got ahold of my husband and told him it looked like he was mauled by a dog," she said.
With nearly 20 bites the mother of two says she rushed her son to the hospital where they helped her call 911.
"Even the doctor looked him over, and said how can this happen."
We were told by the Manatee County Sheriffs Office on Wednesday, September 7, that they had opened an investigation but said that no one was arrested. On Thursday morning, we found out Burke had been arrested on September 6 and got out of jail on September 7.
The Sheriff's office told ABC Action News that Burke left 5 or 6 children in a room by themselves for up to 2 hours while hanging out with other staffers.
During that time, Beebe's son was bitten by another child. It appears that the staff had to have known that the children weren't being cared for, but the Sheriff's office says Burke is the only person who will be arrested.
"If this was my doing, if I neglected my child like that I would be arrested on site," said Beebe.
The daycare, J's Bright Learners LLC in Bradenton off SR 70, denied to talk to ABC Action News reporter Nicole Grigg.
However, the center did confirm that Burke has since been fired.
Beebe tells us the attack was caught on classroom surveillance video, "I demanded to see them."
The mother of two boys went on to explain that her son was waking up from nap time.
"I didn't get to actually see the attack because the way the lady had the camera set up in the room, it was zoomed in on just one part of the room."
Beebe said the video only shows her son walking in and out of camera view, but when she did see him he was crying hysterically.
"At that point I was like where is someone to come rescue or comfort my son?," she exclaimed, "they couldn't give me an explanation."
The 18-month-old did not suffer long term injuries, but was treated and released.
"How is it okay for someone else to have neglected him and still be out walking around?," said Beebe.
Florida's Department of Children and Family Services released this statement:
What happened to this child is absolutely unacceptable. We are conducting a child care licensing investigation jointly with the child protection investigation division of the Manatee County Sheriff's Office. The employee responsible for caring for the child at the time this incident took place is no longer with the facility. Past inspections and violations on childcare facilities can be found online at myflfamilies.com.
WERE THERE PREVIOUS COMPLAINTS?
ABC Action News is looking into the daycare and has found complaints of children being unattended before.
In December 2015, a complaint was made about children being unattended twice. The comments in the report state the VPK teacher left the children unattended at least in two instances.
Another complaint was made in April that an infant was left in the room sleeping with no supervision. Comments made from the state inspector say the director had let that staff member go.
WAS THE INCIDENT RECORDED ON VIDEO?
The Manatee County Sheriff's Office says that the daycare facility has a working video surveillance system but deputies were unable to view the recordings because "it did not contain all of the incident."
