Video shown to a parent appears to show a daycare worker using blue painter’s tape to secure young children to their chairs in an effort to keep them from moving.
FORT WORTH, Texas — A Fort Worth mother is calling for accountability after she says her toddler was taped to a chair by a teacher at Tierra Encantada, a Spanish immersion daycare. The company has acknowledged the incident and described it as a violation of policy, though it has said it does not consider the conduct abuse.
Missy Bowie said she enrolled her daughter, Scottie, who is now nearly 2 years old, at the Tierra Encantada location near Camp Bowie when Scottie was still an infant.
“We really enjoyed how it was presented to us,” Bowie said. “She always did great at the school.”
But Bowie said her confidence in the daycare changed in late June, when she received a phone call from the school.
“The assistant director at the time told me she was abused and neglected along with a few other students,” Bowie said.
Bowie said she was later shown photos and video of Scottie and several other children secured to chairs with blue painter’s tape by a teacher. According to Bowie, the children in the classroom were between 18 months and 36 months old.
“In the video, she is going around and around and around at least four times,” Bowie said.
In a statement, Tierra Encantada confirmed staff used tape to secure children to their chairs, describing it as a “makeshift seatbelt for meal and activity time.” The company said the practice “was not approved nor did it comply with policies.”
A corporate spokesperson said the two employees involved were fired. The company said it invited law enforcement to review the footage and claimed that investigators determined there was no intent to harm.
Bowie admits the children in the video appeared unusually calm and compliant, but she disputes what that means.
“She goes to a little boy, she approaches with the tape, and he immediately lifts his shirt,” Bowie said. “So that tells us this isn’t the first time this has happened.”
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Bowie said the chairs sit only inches off the ground and that only some of the children in the photos were taped.
“Let’s call it what it was, and that’s abuse. It’s not anything other than that,” Bowie said.
Bowie said her daughter has since started refusing to wear the belt on her highchair at home — behavior she initially chalked up to a phase but now believes may be a reaction to what happened at the daycare.
“I just felt so angry for my daughter,” Bowie said.
Bowie said she has watched two videos from the same week and believes more footage exists.
“We want to see the footage. We want to see everything,” she said.
Scottie has since been disenrolled from the school. The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services is investigating.
Tierra Encantada’s full statement:
“We are working directly with DFPS in the investigation. We are working directly with the families and will continue to address this with care, accountability, and transparency. Our mission is to always provide a caring and wholesome educational environment to the highest standard. Because of our rigorous commitment to quality and safety, we complete internal reviews of our video footage regularly. In one of those reviews, our staff identified in one classroom the toddler teachers using tape to create makeshift seatbelts for meal and activity time. We want to be clear about what the footage did and did not show. The teachers used painters’ tape around the lap to create the makeshift seatbelt. The footage did not show teachers acting with the intent to harm (nor were children harmed). It also showed that when children were done completing the activity at the table, they were able to stand up and break the tape. Again, this was not approved, nor did it comply with our policies, which are designed to support children’s growing independence.
Because this did not comply with our policies, and our commitment to trust and transparency, we immediately shared with families and self-reported the matter to Texas Child Care Licensing. We invited law enforcement to view the footage, which they did last week. After viewing the footage, they shared they would not be investigating this further and confirmed it was clear there was no intent to harm. We want to be clear that we self-reported to licensing and to parents.
We also want to be clear that we did not have staffing challenges in that classroom — the room was fully staffed with two teachers supervising 10-12 children. This far exceeds the staff to teacher ratio for Texas (1 teacher to 9-11 children based on age). We will continue to communicate with parents and be fully transparent of the situation.”
