A devoted mother from Louisiana, with a nineteen-month-old toddler, was desperately seeking daycare and reluctantly trusted Angel’s Haven Daycare in New Orleans. However, when her daughter returned home covered in scratches after being “mauled” by another one-year-old also enrolled at the facility – she couldn’t stay silent. The mom took to social media to expose the violent incident that had occurred under the supervision of staff members at Angel’s Haven Daycare.
When Mother Cymande Ford arrived at the daycare in Hollygrove, she was utterly taken aback. Her daughter had been involved in a fight with another toddler whose nails hadn’t been trimmed recently and yet none of the teachers stepped up to intervene. In sheer disbelief, Mrs. Ford watched her child being “mauled” by this other youngster and couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
Desperate for answers, Ford took to the public sphere regarding her daughter’s unexplained injuries. After returning from preschool in New Orleans with bite marks and red scratches scattered all over her body, Ford wanted a truthful explanation that the daycare refused to provide. Thus, she bravely shared her story on social media so that others could help uncover what had happened to her little girl.
“To relive it is just a horror,” Ford said. “I see [Harley’s] face, and it looks like she’s been mauled by a cat, so I start screaming, I’m crying, I dropped my purse, and I ask what happened. I took Harley, and I’m just asking [the school’s director] what happened.”
When Ford inquired the daycare for further details, their program director reported that her daughter Harley had encountered a disagreement with another one-year-old in the program.
This post contains images of Harley, a toddler whose face is marred by scratches and body has bite marks. It’s almost as if she was attacked by an animal rather than simply getting into a fight with another child at her daycare. The horrific image shows us how serious the altercation must have been.
“[She has] seven bites up one arm. A couple of bites up the other arm. She has pants on, but [the 1-year-old] has bitten through her pants on both legs,” Ford said. “You can see the teeth marks. They’re clear and visible.”
Upon witnessing her daughter’s ordeal at the daycare, Ford rushed to take her child to the nearest hospital where she could be examined by experienced medical practitioners.
Operating her own business in Louisiana, Ford needs to find daycare services that can watch her daughter while she is working. But after witnessing the events that unfolded with regard to her beloved little one, trust in these institutions has been shaken; now more than ever before does she need assurance and security when leaving her child at a daycare center each morning.
“It was hard enough for me to send my child to daycare because I’m a business owner. This is just crazy for this to be happening on her third day after something that I already fought myself with so much,” Ford said.
Ford has taken the initiative to inform the New Orleans Police Department of their report, prompting an investigation from the Department of Children and Family Services.
