TAMPA, Fla. – A daycare employee in the Tampa area is facing child abuse charges, after a surveillance video shows her pushing and pulling a child’s neck.
Hillsborough County Sheriff’s deputies said the owner of Children’s Land of Imagination Academy, Rong Liu, 51, was also abusive with the children in her care and taken into custody for the same crime, after a two-month-long investigation.
In a video surveillance of the daycare, the employee, Tara Ballou, 28, is seen pulling off the clothes of one of the children, then forcing the child on their stomach. The video shows Ballou using the weight of her leg to push him down.
“It is sickening to hear that the person responsible for dozens of children at daycare would inflict this type of punishment on the vulnerable persons in her care,” said Sheriff Chad Chronister.
Authorities said Liu was seen a hour earlier using the same tactics, as the child flails and pushes away, to force the child to take a nap.
Liu has since bonded out of jail. Ballou remains behind bars.