A daycare worker was criminally charged after being accused of taping a toddler’s mouth shut in suburban Boston last week.
Amy Li is facing charges of reckless endangerment of a child and assault and battery for allegedly placing tape over the mouth of a 2-year-old Black girl, according to Boston.com.
Nyasia Holmes claimed in a Facebook post that she learned about the outrageous allegations when she went to pick up her daughter from Here We Grow Daycare last Thursday in Randolph, Massachusetts. Holmes accused the daycare of “trying to sweep this under the rug” before finally coming clean once law enforcement became involved.
Li, 26, is accused of placing tape over the little girl’s mouth because she was having a tantrum. Holmes said Li tried to “cover her tracks” by initially describing taping the girl’s mouth as a playful action before an unidentified person told the truth. She is also accused of “changing her story and lying” about what happened.
Holmes described herself as a victim of child abuse who is now overcome with guilt.
“This is causing me so much distress because I do everything in my power to protect my children,” Holmes said in her Facebook post demanding “justice.”
Holmes added later: “I don’t even want to go to work anymore” and “I feel guilty I feel like I did not protect my child.”
Holmes wondered what else Li was “comfortable” doing to her daughter.
Li is expected in court next month to answer for the charges.
While Holmes hasn’t said anything about the role race may have played, research shows that early educational settings disproportionately affect Black children when it comes to discipline. A 2021 study found that such disparities are driven by racial bias.
The allegations in Randolph came on the heels of other unfortunate claims from a daycare center in Florida.
That was where a teacher at Studio Kids’ Little River location in Miami had at least three toddlers…
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