A Queen's Day Care teacher for toddlers with autism injured the 3-year-old's arm and then rubbed hand sanitizer into his mouth.
Teacher Heidi Verasco Munoz pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of his child when he was arrested after the 2023 incident and was told “I have no explanation.”
The lawsuit states that the Happy Dragon Children Learning Centre, a coronavirus daycare, “has never reported any abuse,” and did not immediately fire Munoz despite being registered for school video surveillance. did.
“I trusted them,” mom Sabrina Gentil told the Post. “They failed me and my family.”
“Even though this happened in 2023, it still causes pain for all of us,” Gentil said.
“Justice is done on the criminal side, but we are now looking for civil justice,” said family lawyers Sanford Rubenstein and Mark Silian.
After returning home from daycare in March 2023, the boy's mother was wary to see his arm covered with bruises.
“When I took off his coat and saw a bruise on his arm, I was automatically called a daycare,” Gentil said.
However, Daycare issued a false case report claiming her and the boy's father was stoned when he came the next day, and his non-verbal son Bit himself, signed by the teacher and the daycare director.
“It can tell you the difference between a bite mark and a bruise,” Geritille said. “It looked like a fingerprint.”
Rubenstein added: “It was clearly an attempt at concealment. Clearly, in this case the concealment failed.”
Daycare even refused to share surveillance footage depicting the incident that was hindering for hours when German Father Vazquez returned the next day, so he called the police.
“The school didn't want to show us anything until police actually arrived on the scene,” Vazquez told the Post.
Police report states that Munoz “actively secures” nonverbal child crying between his legs, removes toys from his mouth, “deliberately flicks” his arm, and “forces unknown substances.” This explains a video showing that you insert it into the video. [his] mouth. “
“I was in shock,” Vasquez said. “I was watching a woman rubbing something into her son's mouth.”
“They weren't protecting my son,” he added.
The Gentile rushed her boy to the hospital and thought his doctor had forced him to take the medicine. The toxicology test was negative.
Munoz easily admitted to police that after his arrest a month later he had packed hand sanitizer in the boy's mouth, police report.
“It was not appropriate to hold him that way,” she said, according to police records in body camera footage, “And I felt sick when I did it.”
When the officer asked her about putting hand sanitizer in the boy's mouth, she replied: “Yes. I'm not explaining it.”
“Despite the awful nature of Munoz's actions, Happy Dragon was unable to immediately end Munoz and failed to implement safeguards to prevent further abuse,” the lawsuit states.
The Happy Dragon administrator said they were not aware of the incident and the post could not contact Munoz.
A spokesman for Queens District Attorney said there was no information about Munoz or her case, but records obtained through Foil show that Munoz pleaded guilty in November 2023 to endangering the welfare of a child, 15 Services sentenced to daily community sentences.
Almost two years later, the boy is doing better and loves his new school. But his mom and dad can say he gets nervous when they drive towards his old daycare.
“I think my son remembers clearly,” Vasquez said.
“To this day, I'm not really driving in that direction,” Gentil said.
