Family alleges Queens day care tried to cover up abuse of their nonverbal son with autism
CORONA, Queens (WABC) -- The family of a young boy claims a day care in Queens tried to cover up how their child, who in 2023, ended up with bruises on his arm, and hand sanitizer in his mouth.
The child, who has autism and is nonverbal, was 3 years old when the alleged abuse happened.
His parents say they rushed him to the hospital when they saw the surveillance video. They didn't know what the teacher had put into their son's mouth.
"When I went home and unzippered his coat and saw it I just, I was shocked," said the child's mother Sabrina Gentile. "I'm like OK, now I have to get answers. Kids get hurt all the time. It just looked like fingerprints to me. It was just too many bruises in one area."
Images show the bruises on the toddler's arm that Gentile describes.
She knew it didn't look right, so, she says she immediately called his day care, the Happy Dragon Childcare Learning Center in Corona, Queens, but the boy's parents say the day care claimed he bit himself.
"I've worked EMS for quite a while and am able to determine which type of injury," Gentile said. "I've seen that there was, it looked like fingerprints kind of. It did not look like a type of biting to me. And I'm aware of what my son does, his habits, and that wasn't one of them."
"I felt like automatically they were hiding," said the boy's father German Vasquez. "I felt that sometimes when he would go to school he would be upset, like crying."
The surveillance video, instead, captured his teacher, Heidi Velasco Munoz, removing a toy from his mouth and then forcing hand sanitizer in his mouth.
Munoz pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of a child.
According to the criminal complaint, when she was arrested for the 2023 incident, she told police that she didn't have an explanation for why she did it and that she regretted it.
She was ordered 15 days of community service, and no jail time.
The family is now filing a civil lawsuit.
"Not only was this terrible assault done but there was an attempt by the school to cover it up with a false accident report claiming he bit himself, filed and signed by the principal of the school," said the family's attorney Sanford Rubenstein.
"If the children that are entrusted in you are not treated in a safe manner you will be held accountable," said lawyer Mark Shirian.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the day care said, "The safety of children in our care was, is and always will be our first priority. We worked closely with law enforcement and other city authorities in the aftermath of this incident which occurred almost two years ago, including terminating the teacher when we learned the facts."
The boy's mother says nearly two years later, her son still gets nervous if they drive toward his old day care.
She says she still avoids driving near there.
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