On Wednesday (Feb. 22), Boston 25 News shared an article detailing an act of child abuse in a Massachusetts daycare. Nyasia Holmes told the outlet she was shocked to find out her 2-year-old daughter Kaiya’s mouth was reportedly taped shut by one of the employees.
Holmes filed a police report after learning of the incident late last week. Since then, the 26-year-old Here We Grow Daycare employee was identified as Amy Li. Authorities subsequently charged her with reckless endangerment of a child, and assault and battery. According to the outlet, Li was given a summons to appear in Quincy District Court, but a date is unknown. Although the employee has not been convicted, Holmes claims the woman already admitted to the crime — but only because someone else saw.
“She was just trying to cover her tracks because there was a person who witnessed what happened to my daughter,” the upset mother told the Massachusetts news outlet. Holmes continued, “Why did you think it was okay to put a 2-year-old in a thinking chair and obstruct her breathing and talking? I’m angry that she exposed my child to that type of torture.” The Department of Children and Families spoke with the station and said they are investigating the incident. Holmes thinks the employee could have performed this action on kids at the daycare before. “I don’t feel like this was a one-time incident. It’s not okay. You’re not getting away with it. I will get justice for my child,” she added.
Li allegedly subjected Kaiya to the punishment after she cried and threw a tantrum while other kids were sleeping. In a Facebook post, Holmes said no one at the daycare alerted her until the day after the incident happened. “This woman never apologized for what she did to my child. I was an abused child, [and] this is causing me so much distress because I do everything in my power to protect my children,” the mother wrote in a lengthy post. She added, “When I saw the tape, I lost it… I don’t even want to go to work anymore. I feel guilty. I feel like I did not protect my child.”