Cape Coral day care issued violations after “severe, humiliating” discipline caught on cam

A Cape Coral day care was issued an inspection report with several violations for the way a teacher disciplined a 21-month old child and lying about the incident to her mother.

Sierra Bruner said a teacher at Kiddie Island Academy tried to force her to sign an incident report in October regarding her 21-month-old daughter Kyra.

She said the report claimed that Kyra fell asleep on a book, leaving an indent mark on her face.

But Bruner wasn’t buying the story because the little girl had a scratch on her face and a blood blister on her lip.

She asked to review the day care’s camera footage of her daughter from that day.

The video revealed the teacher pushed the girl to the ground, spanked her and then dragged her by her arm.

Bruner called the Department of Children and Families and the Cape Coral Police Department to file a complaint against the day care.

DOCUMENT: Kiddie Island Complaint report by DCF

“It was heartbreaking, especially since I was lied to about what happened because there was no book indent,” she said.

The next day, DCF inspectors issued violations against the day care for using frightening physical discipline, lying to the parent, and not reporting the incident to DCF themselves.

However, DCF did not make this inspection report viewable online for several weeks after the incident and the day care remains open.

A spokesperson for DCF told WINK News by email that an investigation into the day care that resulted in multiple violations was recently closed, but a separate investigation is ongoing.

“We will continue to work closely with local law enforcement on this case,” wrote Natalie Harrell, the communications director for the Suncoast Region.

The Cape Coral Police Department said in an emailed statement “The case has been packaged and sent to the State Attorney’s Office for a filing decision. There is also a new supplement report for the case … that was just supervisor-approved this morning”

When we asked the State Attorney’s Office office about the case, they would only say, “We are working closely with the Cape Coral Police Department on this case.”

Bruner said a detective told her there would not be any arrests made in the case, and her DCF caseworker will not provide her any additional information.

Another parent filed a similar complaint against the day care in 2016. She told police her daughter claimed a teacher hit her on the face; then, another teacher dragged her into a different room.

The report from 2016 goes on to explain that the day care’s owner told the mother that her daughter was just telling a story.

Police forwarded that incident to DCF.

DCF closed out an investigation into this complaint in April 2016 with no findings or violations.

She claimed that investigators never viewed the video before issuing violations, but she did not want to comment further until the investigations are wrapped up. We could not reach the teacher in the video.