Christina Marie Curtis a Valpraiso, Florida daycare worker charged with child neglect after four toddlers have their legs broken on the same day. Denies being responsible.
A Florida daycare worker has been arrested after four 1-year-old boys in her care had their legs broken on the same day, according to authorities.
Christina Marie Curtis, 25, was arrested on July 20 and charged with four felony counts of neglect of a child that resulted in great bodily harm, court records show. She was released after posting $4,000 bond.
Parents of the four cited children, aged between 13 to 21 months, say they were healthy when they were dropped off in May at the ‘Kids Discovery Learning Center’ in Valpraiso, according to an arrest report.
‘Upon returning to pick them up in the afternoon, the children were showing signs of distress and could not stand or walk,’ the report said, with examinations showing they all had fractured legs, according to Northwest Florida Daily News.
Surveillance footage showed Curtis – a new staffer ‘rapidly jerk’ at least one of the boys by the arms and dropped him feet first into a wagon.
Curtis was also banned from being around children without supervision, the paper said.
But it gets grimmer.
Toddler diagnosed with hairline fracture at Valpraiso daycare center:
‘The defendant denied knowing how the injuries occurred and believed they could have happened either at home or in the playground,’ the arrest report said. ‘She has observed several children fall out of playground cars or other items.’
The mother of one of the hurt boys said how her son showed other signs of neglect, including having ‘dirt all in his hair’ when she picked up the boy from daycare.
‘I don’t know if they let him crawl around out there or what. It took the day care three days to give me any kind of explanation’, told the child’s mother, who asked not to be identified.
‘His balance is still a little funny, but I believe that will get better soon,’ she added.
The mother later learned that her son suffered a hairline fracture. The child has since been slowly recovering.
Noted the daycare’s website homepage: ‘At Kids Discovery we are not all day babysitters. We are partners with you in the development of your child. We treat each child as an individual, helping him or her develop their full creative potential.’
Not immediately clear is how Kids Discovery Learning Center came to employ Curtis and what background checks were made or whether the daycare had a permissive attitude towards child care.
