‘Breaks my heart’: Day care workers arrested after child slapped, others hit with belt

TALLADEGA, Ala. (WBRC/Gray News) - A day care in Alabama is on probation and two workers have been arrested after police say a child was slapped and two others were hit with a belt.

According to the Alabama Department of Human Resources, Precious Vessels Learning Center is on a 6-month probation as it continues to investigate an incident in May where a staffer hit two 3-year-old children “multiple times” with a belt and another staffer hit a child in the back of the head with an open hand.

Talladega police identified the staffer with the belt as Jasmine Ragland. She is facing a 3rd-degree assault charge.

Shirley Curry is the staffer who slapped the child, according to Talladega police. She has been charged with harassment.

Lakkeria Swain said her 3-year-old son’s behavior changed during his time at the day care.

“His behavior changed a lot, he would cry a lot, feeling withdrawn but I always thought it was because he wasn’t used to [day care]” Swain said.

Her son Lexington is reportedly one of the children seen on surveillance video being slapped and hit with a belt.

“I would never think that was the reason because I thought that they would protect my baby, that was the last thing on my mind,” she said.

Swain picked Lexington up from day care in mid-May to find him crying and reaching for his leg.

“When I asked the teachers, no one could face me, until I went back the second time,” Swain said.

The second time she went to question day care leaders, Swain said she was shown surveillance video of what happened.

In one video clip, a woman identified by police as Curry, can be seen seated in a chair at a table. Lexington is behind her next to a shelf system.

There is no audio.

Curry, in a chair with wheels, rolls back and hits Lexington twice. He reaches up and grabs the side of his head.

In another video, Lexington is seen climbing on top of a table. The second teacher, identified by police as Ragland, is standing in the middle of three tables.

Curry picks up a belt, gestures towards Ragland, then places it back down on the table. Ragland walks over and picks it up and walks over to Lexington.

Ragland is then seen hitting Lexington at least eight times with the belt, police said.

It appears he is hit on his knees and the side of his legs as he moves off the table. He then bends down, holds his legs, and rocks back and forth.

“It breaks my heart every time I look at it, I can’t even look at it because I just feel like I wish I was there to try to help him,” Swain said.

When Swain picked her son up about 45 minutes after the incident, the mother said Lexington had raised welts on his leg.

“That tells me that was some serious force,” Rod Giddens, a former prosecutor and Swain’s attorney, said.

He calls the video unlike anything he’s ever seen.

“I would like to know what in the name of God gave them the right to treat 3-year-olds like this? It’s crazy,” Giddens said.

Swain said her son is traumatized by what happened.

“If I put on his belt in his pants, he would kind of back up like he was in trouble, but then I have to tell him, ‘You’re not in trouble,’” Swain said. “So, I try not to have belts around.”

Giddens said if convicted, Curry and Ragland could serve time in jail.

“A lot of these cases don’t have video so it’s he said she said. This is plain and simple what happened, you can’t lie your way out of this one,” he said.

A spokesperson for Precious Vessels Learning Center said they do not have a comment regarding the situation.

Curry and Ragland have also declined to comment during their recent court appearances.