ORMOND BEACH, Fla. – Ormond Beach police have filed child abuse charges against a day care teacher after a mother claimed the woman spanked her 3-year-old daughter.
"We don't call it being spanked or hit. It's you get your biscuits popped," said Cait Clark.
That's exactly what Clark said happened to her daughter at Noah's Ark Preschool inside Grace Lutheran Church on Feb. 1.
"She said mama, I'm scared. I said why are you scared and she said because one of the teachers pops my biscuits when I have accidents in my pants," said Clark.
Clark said she told her daughter to tell the director but claimed her daughter was too scared to say anything.
"My daughter told me that the teacher told her that she would be in trouble if she told the director. I knew she wasn't old enough to make that correlation," said Clark.
Clark said she spoke with the day care director about reporting the abuse.
"She said she self recorded it and that I should receive a phone call from DCF, and days went by but that never happened," said Clark.
Clark told News 6 she called the Department of Children and Families and Ormond Beach police to investigate. Police said the teacher, 56-year-old Kimberly Banta, spanked the child on the buttocks, and on March 3, police filed charges of child abuse without great harm, which is a felony.
Police also told News 6, DCF gave the day care a $1,000 fine for two violations, which included failure to properly report abuse for this case and a previous one that they said involved the same teacher.
"I reported it directly to DCF. They have all the information that very day and came out the next day. So, they are conducting their investigation. We've talked to them, we've opened our doors to them, we've opened up all our parents to them. We have nothing to hide," said Sue Underwood, director of Noah's Ark Preschool.
"I'm not looking for notoriety, I'm not looking for lawsuits. I'm not looking for anything like that. I just want to make sure that this doesn't happen again to somebody else's child," said Clark.
Clark said her child no longer attends that day care. Underwood told News 6 Banta is still employed.
According to the police report, Banta was fired from another day care years ago for continuously not following their rules.
It's now up to the State Attorney's Office to decide if it will prosecute.