A 3-year-old was sexually abused by a teacher at Murfreesboro daycare, according to family reports

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – Concern is growing over a teacher who was fired from a Murfreesboro daycare in April. The state and Murfreesboro police are investigating this teacher on allegations of child abuse.

A relative of that child said he was concerned about what happened at Lionheart Children’s Academy in Murfreesboro.

Because this was a little girl’s privacy, the relative did not want to be identified. However, she said the family received disturbing information and watched what happened to their daughter on camera.

She can learn the words and beat new songs, she is fascinated by dinosaurs and loves excavators. According to her family, she’s just a typical 3-year-old Rutherford County girl, except for what happened to her in Lionheart, which was all caught on video.

“They loved going to school, but that has been taken away from them for the foreseeable future,” the relative said.

She said the girl’s family even chose Lionheart Children’s Academy because there was surveillance video there. When the girl’s teacher was suddenly fired, the relative said the school came to them with disturbing news. According to the relatives, they were told that the girl had been abused by her teacher in two separate recordings and her guardians were watching her.

“It’s possible that this went on for months,” the relative said.

Murfreesboro police said there have been no arrests.

In a statement, the daycare says:

At Lionheart, our commitment to providing a safe environment for every child entrusted to our care has been and remains our top priority. Our commitment to providing the highest quality and standards of care is integrated into our hiring process, which includes professional and personal references and background checks on each employee before they are allowed into a classroom. On Thursday we became aware of concerns relating to a teacher, which we responded to immediately following a thorough investigation on Friday. We then became aware of a criminal investigation against a former employee. This was brought to our attention after we completed our internal investigation last Friday and took appropriate action based on our own findings. We cooperate extensively with law enforcement and government agencies.

“The fact that she’s still here on the streets, not arrested, not charged, how does that make your family feel?” WSMV4’s Marissa Sulek asked.

“We don’t know if she rushed to apply for another school,” the relative replied. “We don’t know if she volunteers in her church’s children’s ministry. We don’t know if she might be working as a babysitter to make ends meet now that she’s unemployed.”

The relative said the child went to the hospital for a checkup.

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