TAYLORSVILLE, Utah — An employee at a Taylorsville daycare center was arrested on a child abuse charge after video showed the woman allegedly hitting a 2-year-old boy in the head and throwing him down to the ground.
The Taylorsville Police Department was first notified of the incident on Nov. 3 when a mother reported that after picking up her children from ABC / Tilley Time Day Care the previous day, she noticed one of her son's top front teeth was broken and missing, along with a cut on his lip and dried blood in his nose. When the woman asked the daycare to see the surveillance video, employees denied her request.
In the police report, the woman said her child did not have the injuries prior to him being dropped off at the daycare.
Police received nine minutes of the requested surveillance video on Tuesday and saw employee Juana Noyola "handling [the child] aggressively and roughly, hitting [the child] in the head twice, and forcefully throwing him down," according to the arrest report. While being thrown down by Noyola, the boy hit his face on a chair, causing the injuries reported by the mother.
“It is absolutely devastating and heartbreaking,” said Jessica Wayman, who used to work at daycares, and is a parent herself.
Wayman said parents are already in a difficult spot, stretching to make ends meet.
“Very hard because families don’t have very many options when Ii comes to trusting people with their kids," she said. "They have to trust and hope for the best, but when things like this happen and they feel like they’re not being listened to, what choice do they have?”
The boy's mom told police that her son had to have a root canal procedure due to the injuries suffered at the daycare center.
“We had a teacher did not live up to our code of conduct in that incident,” said Johnny Anderson, the president of ABC Great Beginnings, which took over daycare operations in August. “So when we were made aware of it, we immediately notified the detective who was involved, asked him to take a look at what we had seen.”
Anderson added that Noyola, like the other employees, went through an extensive background check, and they didn’t find a problematic history.
While being interviewed by police, Noyola, 67, admitted to injuring the boy and "admitted to also knowing what she did was wrong." She added that she had received classes to teach day care employees from injuring children in their care.
Noyola also said she had disciplined her grandchildren in the past and that they had also bled from the mouth.
Wayman said it’s important for parents to report these situations, so they don’t happen again.
“Pay attention, listen to your kids," she said. "If you see bumps, bruises, cuts, anything like that — I'm sure sometimes they send home an incident report — keep them, save them, take pictures, listen to what your children are saying.”
Police arrested Noyola who faces one charge of aggravated child abuse.
