TOLEDO, Ohio — "I lost it. I was a complete mess. I couldn't even talk for like 10 minutes. I was crying so hard just holding my baby," says mother Cassandra Sullivan, describing the moments after she watched video of her son's daycare teacher hitting him in the face.
Sullivan now is pressing charges.
Sullivan says she was picking her kids up early Wednesday from Bright Beginning 24hr Childcare on West Alexis Road.
Her youngest child had a fever, but she was shocked by what was going on with her 3-year-old son.
"I see my son over by the trash can crying. (I) Go over to him, get down on his level. He holds me so tight and doesn't want to let go," recalls Sullivan.
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Sullivan says her son wouldn't tell her what happened, but she knew something was wrong.
"I notice a red mark on his face with welts and a scratch," she says.
Sullivan says once they left, her son told her his teacher had hurt him. She called the daycare's owner, dropped off her kids with a relative and headed back.
"The owner is crying hysterically. I could tell something was wrong. I asked what happened and she told me and I asked to see the tape and I just lost it after I seen how hard she had hit him," says Sullivan.
You can see in the video, the worker trying to feed Sullivan's son. He spits out the food and she hits him across the face.
Sullivan says she's worried this wasn't the first time and says she'll be going back to the daycare to look at more video.
"She smacked him so comfortably. If you notice in the video that none of the other kids even reacted from the situation, you know what I mean? It was a normal thing. That's what got to me," says Sullivan.
Bright Beginning posted on Facebook saying the worker had immediately been fired. The post went on to say the daycare filed a police report and staff will go through additional training.
Sullivan also filed a report with Toledo Police and is pressing charges with the prosecutor's office. She says, "I want her to go to jail. I want her to realize what she's doing to these kids."
Sullivan says her son will stay with relatives and get the counseling she's sure he'll need.
WTOL 11 contacted the worker in the video. She declined an interview.