Haslet Day Care Worker Charged With Assaulting 4-Year-Old Child

A Haslet day care worker was arrested Nov. 9 after being accused of assaulting a 4-year-old boy who was being disruptive, authorities say.

Tracy Ludwig, 36, is charged with injury to a child in the Nov. 6 incident at the Little Country Day Care Pre-School, which has since been circulated on social media.

The incident allegedly happened after the child was removed from his room because he was being disruptive at naptime, according to Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn.

Kindsie Andreason said it was her son Hunter who was assaulted.

She said the day care director initially told her the boy had been acting up and injured himself.

Two days later, when bruises on his face and neck got worse, the boy's regular teacher told her the boy's injuries were not self-inflicted and the director showed her surveillance video of what happened, Andreason said.

"It just upset me so much," she said. "Total outrage just went over me and, I don't know, it was just awful seeing your son just sitting there, being hit by someone you are paying to take care of your kid for you."

Andreason added her son is traumatized.

"It's been awful," she said. "He has to sleep in our room now. He won't sleep by himself. He's woken up five or seven nights with nightmares."

A woman who answered the phone at the day care Monday morning said she could not comment.

"We're not allowed to disclose any information at thie time," she said.

Sheriff Waybourn, a father of ten, said he also was disturbed by what he saw on the video.

"I can see where it makes a parent's blood boil when they see these unorthodox actions," he said.

A spokeswoman for Texas Child Protective Services, Marissa Gonzales, said the agency had launched an investigation into the incident.

Little Country has seven "deficiencies" listed in the last three years on the Texas Health and Human Services website. HHS licenses day cares in Texas.

The deficiencies include an incident in May in which the school was investigated for not reporting "inappropriate discipline of a child."