Ex-daycare worker in Idaho faces criminal charges after ‘aggressive interaction’ with baby
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Editor’s note: This article contains descriptions of violence against a young child. Reader discretion is advised.
BOISE — A now-fired daycare worker is facing four felony counts of injury to a child.
Police say Maria “Mia” Ackerman, 18, at New Horizon Academy at 155 East Boise Avenue hurt an infant on Monday.
Also on Monday, Ackerman “was immediately sent home from the facility … and not allowed back,” according to a news release from Boise Police.
She had worked at the daycare since March or April.
According to a statement from New Horizons Academy provided to KIVI, its team observed an employee engaged in “aggressive interaction with a child,” reported the incident to police and licensing agencies, and notified families.
“Through an investigation, evidence showed the suspect’s actions toward the infant, and three additional infants at the childcare center, could have caused great bodily harm or death,” police said.
She was arrested on Thursday and booked into the Ada County Jail.
The daycare said internal and external investigations are underway and that it is cooperating with police.
At Ackerman’s arraignment, Prosecuting Attorney Joshua Haws said the allegations against Ackerman include violently shaking an infant, covering an infant’s nose and/or mouth, smothering an infant, slamming an infant’s head into a changing table, striking an infant repeatedly with a closed fist and an open fist, grabbing an infant by the face or head, pulling and/or squeezing an infant by the head and/or neck, throwing an infant into a pillowed area, and swinging an infant by the neck, as reported by the Idaho Statesman.
Haws also said an unsecured infant fell off a changing table, and Ackerman sat him back up and walked away without checking for injuries.
“The worst of it being 35 seconds of straight shaking of that child, though the whole shaking incident lasted over a minute,” Haws said at her arraignment. “She picked him up by his neck, she sort of suffocated him by placing his face to her chest and then, squeezing tightly, swung him around by his neck, so his back was to her chest and squeezed him again. This horrific abuse was all caught on film.”
The child, who was 5 months old, has a fractured rib, tibia fracture and brain injuries due to oxygen deprivation. The infant will live, Haws said, and Ackerman was lucky he wasn’t filing murder charges.
Magistrate Judge Michael Dean set bond at $1 million, according to court records. Ackerman’s preliminary hearing will be Nov. 12.
“Every child deserves gentle, attentive care,” New Horizons Academy said in its statement. “This behavior is unacceptable.”