An angry mother says she is suing a Miami daycare claiming her 5-year-old daughter was the victim of battery, assault and negligence while being cared for at the facility.
Trina Jackson says she had no problem leaving her daughter at the J-Ruiz Learning School until the day 5-year-old Kayla came home with one of her braids missing, yanked right out of her scalp.
Jackson says staff told her the hair was already gone when Kayla came to preschool that day.
But it turns out the entire incident was caught on what appears to be surveillance video, showing Kayla apparently attacked by a group of girls as the caregiver seems to ignore it.
Finally, the caregiver gets involved and checks Kayla's scalp -- "I think she throws the hair in the garbage," said Jackson.
In a separate incident, the video also shows what appears to be the caregiver smacking a child in the head.
"She says something," points out attorney Christopher Wadsworth as he watches the tape. "And bam! Right in the head."
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Only one of the incidents captured on 26-minute tape involves Kayla.
Jackson's lawyers say J-Ruiz administrators actually volunteered the video.
"For the life of me, we can't figure it out," said Wadsworth. "We sent them a letter saying what the allegations were and demanding some investigation, and they sent us this 26-minute clip with a letter saying 'after you view this video, you'll drop your case.'
"After we viewed the video, in our opinion, the case got stronger."
Jackson says Kayla told her she'd been hit, scratched, and slapped many times.
"The trust factor was there until now, so just thinking about it right now...has me angry, because I always try to give my children the best care," she said.
A man who identified himself as the daycare's owner, Jose Ruiz, answered a phone call and told NBCMiami "my attorney is handling this. What she's saying is not true. I don't want to talk to you about this."
He declined to give the name of his attorney.
On Tuesday, NBC Miami confirmed that the Department of Children and Families had opened an investigation into child abuse allegations, but the probe was closed two months later on June 28. DCF said they couldn't release any of their findings.
