Securing a safe environment for young children is a priority for parents everywhere, which makes allegations of abuse or mistreatment particularly alarming.

One mother in Los Angeles, California, said her fears became reality after she viewed alarming surveillance video footage from the preschool in which her young son had been enrolled.

BrieAnn Battle described the experience in an interview with a local ABC News affiliate, asserting that an employee of Kinder Kids Christian Preschool could be seen aggressively grabbing the 4-year-old boy’s arms, forcibly restraining him on the ground and holding him upside down by his ankles. 

She reportedly received the evidence from another employee who was upset by the individual’s behavior. 

“I was distraught,” Battle said of her response to the video. 

The revelation led her to embark on a mission to hold those responsible to account, though she lamented that the preschool’s owner had not been particularly helpful. At first, she adopted an open-minded approach to the situation, noting that “things do get out of control” when young kids are involved.

According to the mother, her first “mother-to-mother, woman-to-woman” discussion with the preschool’s owner involved extending the “benefit of the doubt,” but the response she received changed her mind.

Specifically, Battle said the owner is “denying everything” and said the “sickening” experience involved an apparent effort to cover up the salient details of her complaint. 

“The owner-operator showed me the clip from when she took him out into the foyer, and that’s when he was giving her a lot of activity, so she thought that was going to be, I guess, a better angle,” she explained.

A mother is demanding justice after a security video captured a daycare employee picking up her 4-year-old son by his ankles.
https://t.co/xL04gdwNo6

— KTLA (@KTLA) April 27, 2024

The owner’s perceived refusal to acknowledge the alleged mistreatment resulted in Battle’s decision to file a police report.

“How dare you?” the mother asked. “And then she’s avoiding accountability, so it’s turned very criminal.”

Although the employee seen in the clip has since resigned, Battle said further action against the preschool and its owner is warranted.

“For that matter, she doesn’t need to be taking care of anybody else’s kids and her license needs to be revoked.”

No one from the preschool responded to the local news station’s request for comment on the matter and police say the abuse complaint filed by Battle remained under investigation as of the most recent update available.