Kiddie Island Academy is currently under investigation by DCF for abuse allegations.
A mother claimed a teacher at the Cape Coral day care hit her daughter in the mouth, and that another employee dragged her by the ankle into time out. The day care's director denies these allegations.
Maria Varela is the director at the day care. She tells FOX 4 the mother's claims are "completely false" and she trusts the appropriate agencies will take care of it.
According to DCF, the facility has a clean record with no history of violations, but the center doesn't have cameras installed in the building, making it difficult to know exactly what happened.
The mother publicly posted her daughter's experience on Facebook. Her post has received hundreds of likes, has a very long thread of comments, and has been shared hundreds of times.
According to a report, the girl did have a small mark on her bottom lip and small pink and dark marks on her left ankle, but it does not prove with certainty that they were because she was tightly grabbed.
This incident has the community's attention, raising the question whether or not it should be required to install cameras inside day care facilities.
Melissa Skerczak has been a director at a different day care, Wellington Academy, for the past 15 years. She tells FOX 4 the mother will be registering her daughter at Wellington Academy while DCF completes their investigation.
While she can't comment on the case, she says that in general, cameras should be required in every day care center. "Part of quality care, in my opinion, is to have cameras,"Skerczak said.
Her day care, Wellington Academy, has more than a dozen cameras throughout the facility. "We have cameras in every room," she said. "We have cameras facing our playground and two in our parking lots."
Cameras are strategically set up to capture different angles of each room, for more than just a security measure.
"It's not just for the client, but also for the protection of the students and teachers," Skerczak said.
DCF has a licensing team looking in to the parent's concerns, conducting an "institutional child protection investigation at the facility."
The owner at Kiddie Island Academy tells FOX 4 once the investigation is complete, she will be publicly releasing any findings, and will have cameras installed in her center.
