In the video, Braylen is seen running down the hall as the employee follows him. The employee then catches up with the boy and violently strikes him in the back of the head, which sends the child flying forward before his body slams to the floor.
A disturbing video shows an adult chasing down a toddler at an Ohio school and then violently striking the boy in the back of the head.
Now, the parents of that nonverbal, special-needs 3-year-old child are demanding answers.
Braylen Tootle was at Rosa Parks Early Learning Center on Aug. 21 when he was chased down by a Dayton Public Schools employee in an incident that was caught on camera.
In the video, Braylen is seen running down the hall as the employee follows him. The employee then catches up with the boy and violently strikes him in the back of the head, which sends the child flying forward before his body slams to the floor.
At that point, the video shows the employee pick up Braylen by his feet and start hauling him back towards his classroom while the boy dangles upside down.
His parents said in a press conference that they were told an incident had happened when they picked Braylen up that day, but claimed the information was vague.
They then attempted to get the video of the incident, which the claim took close to a month.
They are both outraged and allege that the school did not tell them the full story about the incident, saying they only discovered the truth after they were informed by Child Protective Services and finally provided with a copy of the video.
"He wasn't doing anything wrong," Braylen's mother, Taneshia Lindsay, said at a press conference. "You could have bear-hugged him. You could have let another teacher do it. I don't know what was going on in that man's head, but my son did not deserve that."
The Dayton Public Schools employee seen on the video has now resigned, but that is not enough, say Braylen's parents.
"They shouldn't have sent him home pending an investigation. He should have left that school in handcuffs. And that's why a lot of other parents are mad because, why hasn't he been arrested?" asked Lindsay. "That is clearly assault on that video. That man should not have left that school, he should not be in society around other people's kids. We don't know what this man is doing. He should have been locked up."
Michael Wright, the lawyer for the family, says they are now contemplating legal action.
"The way Dayton Public Schools handled this situation was absolutely shameful. They lie to this family. They kept them in the dark. They were not being transparent, and they have to be held accountable," Wright said.
"For the Dayton Police Department, why has there not been an arrest? For the prosecutor's office, why has there not been any formal charges against this teacher's aide, paraprofessional," Wright continued. "So we are requesting an arrest. We are requesting charges, and we are requesting that the Dayton public school system be transparent with this family."
Meanwhile, the interim superintendent for the Dayton Public Schools said in a statement the district would be responding to this incident by implementing additional measures so that "employees are properly trained and qualified for their positions in an effort to prevent such incidents from occurring in the future."
The case has been presented to the Montgomery County Prosecutor's Office according to school officials.
