Local daycare employee arrested, accused of slamming 2-year-old's head
BATON ROUGE - Authorities have arrested a daycare worker in Baton Rouge accused of slamming a two-year-old boy and lying about what happened.
An arrest warrant was filed for Janice Washington this week for one count of cruelty to juveniles. Police said she claims that the child threw a fit, causing him to hurt himself. But that's not what authorities said they discovered when they were brought in.
It appeared to be business as normal Friday at A Lil One's Learning Center on Stumberg Lane. Parents coming to pick up their children, a little more than a week after a two-year-old at the daycare was reportedly injured by an employee.
We went to A Lil One's on Friday and where an employee answered the door.
“Is there a Ms. Janice Washington here?" we asked.
"No,” the employee said.
Police documents say the 59-year-old injured a child by forcefully pushing his head down into a sleeping cot after he refused to lie down. That caused him to hit his face on the edge, according to police documents.
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All of this was captured on the daycare's surveillance footage, later obtained by police.
Police said Washington repeatedly pushed the child's head down, eventually flipping him over, when she discovered the injuries. She attempted to wipe his face clean, according to arrest records.
Photos of the child were shared by his mother on Facebook and showed the two-year-old with bruises on his head, and a cut on his nose. He was checked out by doctors as the parents called the police.
When we asked to speak to the owner, we were told she was not at the daycare. And the employee wanted to distance herself from the situation.
“I'm a worker. I've got somebody sitting in my room right now. I'm not into this, this is not me,” she said.
Washington was booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish jail Tuesday.
On top of Washington's arrest, the family of the child is also seeking legal action, not talking with us on the advice of their attorney.
There have been no prior incidents reported at the daycare. Since we did not hear back from anyone at A Lil One's Learning Center it is unclear if Washington has been let go by the daycare.