TYLER — Twenty-one-year-old Tabitha Bray surrendered to the Tyler Police Department on Wednesday. She was arrested and charged with injury to a child, criminal negligence. Bray was released on the same day under a $5,000 bond.
Belinda Benson, who is the owner of USA Planet Kids, the childcare facility at which Bray was employed, says they were questioned by a parent of one of the toddlers in Bray’s care about a mark on the boy’s back. Surveillance footage from the classroom allegedly showed that Bray was responsible for the marking. Benson told CBS19 off-camera that she immediately fired Bray and filed separate charges against her the next day.
The parents of the toddler involved do not wish to speak with media, at this time. But one mother says she pulled her sons from the facility earlier this year following similar issues.
"Probably the last two to three weeks that they were going to this place, I cried on the way to work every single day,” says Holly Roberson. “I just cried, because I knew that if something happened, I wasn't going to get the results I wanted from the people that I was paying almost all of my paycheck to."
Roberson enrolled her two sons at USA Planet Kids childcare facility in July 2017. Her youngest son was enrolled for full-time care, and her oldest was enrolled in the after-school program. But in less than a year's time, Roberson says she found herself looking for another daycare.
"He came home a lot of times in dirty pull-ups, dirty diapers. Face was filthy. Clothes were filthy. If he had a cut, a scratch, something, you could tell it wasn't doctored. And there was no incident report."
The final straw, Roberson says, was when her youngest son began to continuously come home with marks on his face.
"When I brought it to their attention, the owners of the childcare, they did not approach it proactively. It was approached very negatively, like we were at fault. We had to find another childcare facility.”
According to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services website, in the last three years, USA Planet Kids has undergone 34- state inspections, in which they were cited for 44-high risk deficiencies. This includes an incident in 2016 when according to the department: "a teacher mistreated a child when he misbehaved in class. This teacher is no longer employed."
"Knowing former employees that worked there, knowing the stories that they've given, things that they've said, it's not farfetched at all," says Roberson.
She says there’s a greater issue not being addressed at the facility.
"I feel like if their approach can't be that of a solution to a problem that's obviously there, with a positive approach, then being shut down would be the only option."