Docs: Avon daycare worker recorded kicking, battering 3-year-old boy
AVON, Ind. (WISH) — An employee at an Avon daycare was arrested Friday after being caught on camera battering a 3-year-old boy in her care.
The employee, 42-year-old Cari Ann Smith, has since been terminated from her position at the daycare after being employed there for seven years, court documents say.
An investigation into Smith began Friday morning.
A probable cause affidavit obtained by News 8 says a Hendricks County Sheriff’s Department investigator received a report from the Department of Child Service of abuse happening at the Imagination Station daycare in Avon.
The report included surveillance camera footage of the incident. The footage, dated Jan. 16, shows Smith pulling the boy from a part of the classroom during naptime and placing him on a cot. Smith proceeded to “kick him on his buttocks” and then “spank (him) with her bare hand.”
Court documents say Smith used so much force that the boy’s “entire body bounced.” The boy’s head also bounced and hit the metal frame of the cot during the incident.
Smith was also seen on camera throwing wooden train track pieces at the boy after he threw a ball lightly toward another part of the classroom.
Investigators say multiple other children can be seen in the classroom during both of these incidents.
Officers met with the boy and two other employees at the daycare. Police observed the boy’s injuries from Smith throwing the wooden blocks at his face and head, and when another employee asked if the boy liked Smith, he said, “No…I don’t want Ms. Cari.”
An employee also told police she confronted Smith about the incident at naptime, Smith said that she understood how “it could definitely look wrong to the camera.”
Smith was taken into custody Friday afternoon.
Officers tried speaking with Smith regarding the incident, but she denied having any knowledge of what they were talking about. When investigators mentioned the incident with the boy during naptime, court papers say Smith asked for an attorney.
She was being held at the Hendricks County jail without bond. Court documents say she is facing charges for one count of kidnapping and eight counts of battery resulting in injury to a person under 14.
