INDIANAPOLIS (WXIN/CNN) - The Indiana daycare where a 1-year-old was severely beaten has been shut down but other locations are still open under the same owner.
The scabs and scars aren't slowing baby Jesse down. His mom said he's back to his old playful self just three days after someone at daycare beat him. While protecting his innocence, his parents said they are determined to make sure this doesn't happen to anyone else child.
“My kids was at daycare and they had license and the state is allowing them to continue to take care of other people kids,” said Tiffany Griffin, Jesse's mother.
The daycare worker on duty at the time said another child caused Jesse's brutal injuries. The family and social services administration inspected the daycare and found seven violations.
Violations included: no drug screen completed for caregiver, no consent form submitted for caregiver, no fingerprinting for national background check. Violations also included: unqualified caregiver present, two lack of supervision violations and child abuse not immediately reported by caregiver. As a result, the location was shut down.
“If you got all these violations how are you allowed to open up another day care or keep your other ones running?" said Jesse Harris III, the baby’s father. "If one shut down the other one should shut down too.”
Griffin agreed.
“Because you didn't call the cops,” she said. “You're the director.”
The agency said no other Kiddie Garden locations were investigated and are operating in good standing based on their last scheduled inspection.
"I just want answers for my son," Griffin said. "I want justice too. All of that stuff is cool and dandy and the laws and all of that, but I want to know what happened to my son."
Jesse's father was set to deploy with the Indiana National Guard in June. He put that mission on hold to fight for his son.
“I can't leave him right now,” Harris said. “Like I can't leave him and I can't be in the right mind frame being overseas I just can't so it's best for me to stay home with my son and to support her and support my family and seek counseling and get my mind back right to where it was before all this happened.”
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