The child’s mother shares surveillance video with WBRC, says, “I thought they would protect my baby”
By Morgan Hightower
Published: Jul. 19, 2024 at 5:39 PM CDT|Updated: 5 hours ago
TALLADEGA, Ala. (WBRC) – A daycare in Talladega is on probation by the Alabama Department of Human Resources (DHR) and two workers are charged after Talladega Police say one child was slapped and two were hit with a belt.
Precious Vessels Learning Center is on a 6-month probation as DHR continues to investigate an incident in May where a staffer hit two 3-year-old children “multiple times” with a belt and another staffer hit one of the children in the back of the head with an open hand, according to a DHR deficiency report.
Talladega Police identified the staffer with the belt as Jasmine Ragland. She is charged with two counts of assault 3rd degree, a misdemeanor. Shirley Curry is the staffer who slapped the child, according to Talladega Police. She is charged with harassment, which is also a misdemeanor.
“His behavior changed a lot, he would cry a lot, feeling withdrawn coming in, but I always thought it was because he wasn’t used to [daycare]” said Lakkeria Swain. Her 3-year-old son, Lexington, is seen on surveillance video being slapped and hit with a belt.
“I would never think that was the reason because I thought that they would protect my baby, that was the last thing in my mind.”
Swain picked Lexington up from daycare in mid-May to find him crying and reaching for his leg.
“When I asked the teachers, no one couldn’t [sic] face me, until I went back the second time,” said Swain.
The second time she went to question daycare leaders, Swain said she was shown surveillance video of what happened.
In one clip, you see the woman identified by TPD as Shirley Curry, seated in a chair at a table. Lexington is behind her next to a shelf system. There is no audio. Curry, in a chair with wheels, rolls back and hits Lexington twice. He reaches up and grabs the side of his head.
In the second clip, Lexington is seen climbing on top of a table. The second teacher, identified by TPD as Jasmine Ragland, is standing in the middle opening of three tables arranged to form an u-shape. Several children are sitting on the table across from Lexington and Curry is seated at the table adjoining the two sides.
In the video, Curry picks up a belt, gestures it towards Ragland, then places it back down on the table. Ragland walks over and picks it up and walks over to Lexington, who is sitting on his legs on the table. Ragland is then seen hitting Lexington at least 8 times with the belt. It appears he is hit on his knees and side of his legs as he moves off the table. He then bends down, holds his legs and rocks back and forth.
“It breaks my heart every time I look at it, I can’t even look at it because I just feel like I wish I was there to try to help him, in reality, I couldn’t,” said Swain.
When Swain picked her son up about 45 minutes after the incident, Lexington had raised welts on his leg.
“That tells me that was some serious force,” said Rod Giddens, a former prosecutor and Swain’s attorney.
He calls the video unlike anything he’s ever seen.
“I would like to know what in the name of God gave them the right to treat 3 year olds like this? It’s crazy,” said Giddens.
Swain said her son is traumatized by what happened.
“If I would have put on his belt in his pants, he would kind of like back, back like he’s in trouble, but then I have to redirect him like, ‘You’re not in trouble.’ So, I try not to have belts around.”
She added, “He can’t speak, so I feel so sad... because I want to get it out of him so bad, like, ‘Tell me what’s wrong!’ Is it something, you know? It just breaks my heart to not understand what he is trying to tell me.”
Giddens said if convicted, Curry and Ragland could serve time in jail.
“A lot of these cases don’t have video so it’s a he/said she/said. This is plain and simple what happened, you can’t lie your way out of this one.”
WBRC FOX6 reached out to Precious Vessels Learning Center to ask about the situation, and whether Curry and Ragland were still employed but was told, “No comment.”
WBRC also met both women at a recent court appearance and neither wanted to speak on-the-record about the incident.
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