I-TEAM: Mother demands answers from daycare after child’s face covered in bruises

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - A mother is furious and taking action after her toddler’s face was covered in bruises when she picked him up from daycare this week. Ge’Nene Davis wants the facility investigated and shut down. While Davis says the bruises on her 15-month-old son Gabriel’s face are bad, she believes the lack of answers from the daycare about what happened is worse.

“I’m angry but I’m also hurt but it’s not really nothing I can do physically,” said Davis.

The bruises on Gabriel’s face and bite marks on his back paint a horrific picture of what Davis says happened while he was at daycare this week. She says the worst part is not knowing exactly what happened to her son and who was responsible.

WAFB’s Scottie Hunter asked the mother what went through her mind when she first saw the bruises on her son’s face.

“You know, did someone hit him or there’s a lot of these what ifs,” said Davis. “What was he doing while all of this was going on? Was he crying or was he hitting back? What was going on while all of this was happening to him? And then it started running through my mind what if it wasn’t a child or did a child hit him or how hard did this child or whoever did this, and how long was it going on.”

The moment she saw the markings, Davis tells the WAFB I-TEAM she reached out to Chandra’s Childcare & Learning Center- which is run out of a home on West Darryl Parkway in Baton Rouge. She says someone at the daycare told her it may have been an allergic reaction to a new rug at the facility. After visiting the doctor Davis says her worst fears were confirmed and that the doctor told her the markings were bruises. She says when she reached out to the daycare again, the story changed, and she was told her son may have run into a wall. She questions whether that is true because Davis says the 15-month-old has never done anything like that in her care. She believes someone needs to be held accountable.

“No baby deserves this and it really is a nightmare because being that a 15-month-old is in this position and you can’t tell me as an adult at a childcare center that’s been open for years, what happened… that’s very irresponsible,” said Davis.

She’s reported it to Baton Rouge Police and the Department of Children and Family Services who are investigating. She’s also in the process of reporting the daycare to the Louisiana Department of Education, which oversees daycares statewide. Davis says her goal is to stay on top of it until something is done.

“Seeing it go through is important because a lot of times this happens and it doesn’t get solved. I plan on letting it go through and it being solved and shutting her down.”

The WAFB I-TEAM reached out to the daycare and had to leave a message for the owner, asking questions about what happened, but Davis still has her own questions that remain unanswered.

“Where were your workers? Where were the eyes here? That’s my question,” said Davis.

Davis says she was already in the process of pulling her son out of the daycare but is outraged this was able to happen to her child. She hopes the daycare owner will give investigators more answers than she says she has been given

“I just pray that the Lord convicts their heart of whatever happened but you know what you told me is not what happened. That’s not what happened to my child,” said Davis.

The WAFB I-TEAM did leave a message with the daycare owner on Thursday, June 27, 2024. That call has not been returned.

Click here to report a typo.

Copyright 2024 WAFB. All rights reserved.