Florida Toddler Bitten More Than a Dozen Times At Day-Care, Worker Charged For Neglect

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Amanda Beebe rushed to the day care center where she left her 18-month-old and became hysterical. Her boy’s body was covered with more than a dozen bite marks. His face, limbs and back were swollen and raw

Who bit her boy? Where were the adults? How could this happen at a day care?

“It looked like he’d been mauled by an animal,”

Beebe told The Associated Press on Wednesday. But the doctor at the hospital told Beebe that by the look of the marks, her son had been bitten by another child

Now, the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office and child welfare authorities are investigating the J’s Bright Learners center in Bradenton and an employee, Caci Reese, now faces charges of child neglect.

Beebe said she had recently put her two children, the 18-month-old and his 4-year-old brother, into the day care so she could continue her education in alternative medicine. She was paying $40 a week — all she could afford — with a government voucher covering the rest

On Aug. 26, a day care worker notified Beebe and her husband that their younger boy had been bitten once.

“We weren’t upset — that happens with children,”

Said Beebe, who assumed workers would keep a watchful eye on the child with the biting issues. Three days later, she got another call. This time, the employee said “it’s bad, it’s really bad,” she recalled.

She hung up and rushed to the center, where her boy was covered with bites and inconsolable.

She rushed him to a hospital, where doctors called authorities.

A week later, Beebe was shocked that no one was arrested.

According to the Bradenton Herald, Florida’s Department of Children and Families has issued violations to J’s Bright Learners six times after its last 12 inspections, for leaving children unsupervised or failing to have enough staff to care for the number of children.