An investigation is underway after video surfaced showing a Philadelphia day care worker tying up a young boy and shaking him.
The incident occurred Monday at the Crayon Corner Learning Center & Preschool in Philadelphia’s Holmesburg neighborhood.
Another employee recorded as the day care worker tied a 4-year-old boy to a high chair with what appeared to be a shoestring. The worker then grabbed the boy’s face and shook him.
“I really hope that she doesn’t work anywhere else,” the boy’s mother, Mayra Martinez, told NBC10. "Nowhere. Nowhere with kids.”
Martinez took her son to the hospital for an evaluation and reported the incident to police. The worker was fired from the day care but has not yet been charged.
“I’m very sorry something like this happened at my place,” Dorina Axenie, the owner of the day care, told NBC10.
Axenie said the worker had been at the day care for about a year and went through all the proper background checks before she was hired.
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Martinez told NBC10 she has another child who attended the day care but they won’t go back. She wants the worker to be charged with child abuse.
On Tuesday the employee who recorded the incident, Jamie Cohen, came forward and told NBC10 she felt she needed to protect the boy.
"Since seeing the previous tie ups, I said, 'You know what? I'm going to record it.' When she picked him up, I knew what she was going to do right away," Cohen said.
Cohen told NBC10 she had only worked there for six days but had seen the same worker aggressively tie up the boy with a shoestring five times though Monday's incident was the worst she had seen.
"My heart broke and then within a minute of her going in the classroom and shutting the door I untied him and let him out," Cohen said.
Cohen quit her job after the incident. She told NBC10 she recorded the incident for evidence and awareness.
"I don't think he would have died so I can't say I saved a life," she said. "But definitely prevented harm."
NBC10 checked the records of the day care but did not find any major red flags. It's last state inspection took place last month.
Philadelphia police and DHS continue to investigate.
