I-Team: Video of Disturbing Day Care Incident

*Warning: Video may be considered disturbing.*

CLEVELAND — Building Blocks Academy is located on East 185th Street in Cleveland, but it was on the day care’s playground that a disturbing incident was caught on camera.

A concerned viewer emailed cell phone video of a toddler being slapped and hit by four other children for 25 seconds while two day care workers apparently did nothing to stop the fight.

With no idea who the child was, the Fox 8 I-Team went to the day care and showed the video to parent after parent outside.

On Tuesday morning, a woman by the name of Lakeshia Martin recognized the toddler and said it was her son, Teshawn McGhee.

“He’s been going here since he was eight months, and now he’s two years old,” said Martin.

For his parents, who say that Teshawn is the victim in the video, it is difficult to watch.

“The first thing that goes through my head is that adults are there. Why didn’t they stop it?” asked Martin.

It’s a question that the Fox 8 I-Team decided to ask the daily director of the day care.

We showed the video to Robyin Craig, the director, who claimed to have no knowledge of the video.

She said that she could not talk about the video because she was in shock and that the owner was not there.

After we confronted the day care, the Fox 8 I-Team discovered that a letter was sent home with parents the next day.

According to the letter from Building Blocks Academy, the owner is listed as Thronda DeLoach.

We reached out to Ms. DeLoach who declined to comment on camera.

But in her letter, DeLoach writes, “This video was taken this past summer. The teacher supervising the children was a summer worker and is no longer employed at the center.”

She goes on to write, “Please be advised that the proper actions are being taken,” and,  “All staff has been informed of the correct disciplinary action to be taken during an altercation between children.”

Outside the day care, parents were talking.

“It just disturbed me. Actually, it disturbed the mess out of me,” said Deanna Merles, a parent.

“This is an excelled day care. I don’t have any problems,” said Ashley Walker, another parent.

“It’s just awful, that’s all I can say about that. And someone needs to do something about that,” said Juanita Graham, a grandparent.

“It was obvious someone should have intervened,” said Commander James Chura with the Cleveland Division of Police.

We showed the video to members of the Cleveland police department, who in turn have launched a full investigation.

“It definitely falls under endangering children.  We will investigate this and then run it through the prosecutor’s office,” added Commander Chura.

“You send your child to day care expecting your child to be protected, and you put your trust in this facility and any type of day care and you expect them to do the right thing,” added Sgt. Antoinette McMahan.

As for Teshawn, his parents say he will no longer attend Building Blocks Academy.

“It was either that or take matters into my own hands. So the best thing to do was to go and get him and take him out of school that day,” said Anthony McGhee, his father.

“If God wasn’t on my side, I wouldn’t have never knew nothing about it.  If I had gone to the hospital and they said he had bruises on him, they would have looked at the parents, like it had to come from ya’ll because he live with ya’ll.  Until you showed me the video, and I said, that’s my son!” said Martin.