A daycare worker at a Brickell preschool was arrested Tuesday after allegedly slapping a toddler at the school last week.
Odeity Perez-Barrios, 48, was charged with one count of child abuse for the incident on Dec.19 at the Brickell Heights Preschool, located at 25 Southwest 9th Street.
According to an arrest report, the mother of the one-and-a-half-year-old child noticed a red mark on the toddler's thigh. She took the child to urgent care, who then notified Miami Police about the incident.
The physician confirmed that the marking is "consistent with an open hand print making contact with the child using some force," the police report stated.
Get South Florida local news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC South Florida newsletters.
Surveillance video from the school showed Perez-Barrios striking the toddler several times in the thigh while changing his diaper.
Police interviewed Perez-Barrios on Tuesday, where she said the toddler would not stay still while changing the diaper and she held him tightly so he wouldn't fall off the table. She said she didn't remember hitting the toddler.
The mother of Perez-Barrios spoke to NBC 6 and Telemundo 51, defending her daughter's actions.
Local
"My daughter is a very hard worker," she said in Spanish. "She has worked many years with children and never had a problem. All she did was grab him, and because he was too big for the carrier, he was kicking and falling out."
Perez-Barrios is being held on $5,000 bond and is prohibited from being a childcare worker while the case is pending.
