SHERWOOD, Ark. — A teacher at a Sherwood, Arkansas, day care center has been charged with second-degree battery after a 2-year-old’s mother discovered marks all over his body.
Chelsea Jahnke contacted police after her son came home from Sylvan United Methodist Early Learning Center with “adult size fingernail marks underneath both of his arms,” KARK reported.
Jahnke also shared photos on social media of red marks and bruises on her child’s shoulders, arms and sides.
“I can’t even imagine how hard you would have to squeeze for that to happen,” Jahnke told the TV station.
The mother said her toddler came home at the beginning of the school year and was scared to go back the next day, after he told her he was pinched and grabbed by his teacher at the Early Learning Center. Jahnke asked the administration to move her son to another classroom, but that request was ignored. And two months later the child came home with marks on his body again after he said he moved off his nap mat, KARK reported.
“Once I saw the marks, and I asked him what happened, and he had the same story again that she pinched me,” Jahnke said.
Kimberly Havniear has been charged in the case, and a DHS spokesperson told KARK that the child care facility is under investigation for additional child abuse allegations involving a different employee.
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