Deputies investigate day care after incident captured on video

The day care has an A+ rating from the state, but an incident caught on a cellphone video this week frightened parents and led to the investigation.

Click play to watch the video: 

Brittany Harris quit her job as a teacher there Tuesday after she took a video on her cellphone that she said showed another teacher behaving harshly with two toddlers.

"My first thought was to get out my phone and to take a video of what was going on," Harris said.

She said the video showed a teacher forcefully drop a child down on a sleeping mat. Then she picks up another child, places him on another mat then seems to push several times on his head to make him stay there. WSOC-TV is not naming the teacher because she has not been charged.

Harris told WSOC-TV she took the video from outside the room when she saw the teacher getting frustrated. She also had a son in the room with the teacher, and was worried about his safety.

Harris brought the video to day care owner Christine Boatwright, who played it in front of her and the accused teacher.

Harris quit her job that same day when she said nothing was immediately done about it.

WSOC-TV spoke to Boatwright about the incident and the teacher on the video.

"We do not excuse her behavior and we would never condone that. What she did was wrong" Boatwright said.

The teacher was let go but had worked there for eight years with no issues, Boatwright said. She called her a quiet and soft-spoken woman who was good with children.

She said toddlers often repeatedly get up during nap time and the teacher was likely just frustrated.

"I think what they saw is a frustrated teacher who was acting roughly with children, but not intending to hurt them," she said.

Harris believes it was more than that. She said she's the one who made the call to the Department of Social Services, not the owner.

"There was no reason those little one-year-olds should have been handled the way they were," she said.

She told WSOC-TV she fears if she hadn't come forward, the incident would have been swept under the rug and parents would not have been informed.

Boatwright said she did notify parents and posted information about the incident on social media as well.

"It’s not a pretty video to watch. It's not nice," Boatwright said. "But we love and care for our children here."

WSOC-TV spoke to the father of one of the two toddlers in the video who filed the police report. He said they have already found child care elsewhere, and he didn't want to comment on the incident.

DSS is now investigating, along with sheriff's deputies.

No charges have been filed.