Former GTA daycare worker gets no jail time after pleading guilty to assaulting 5 children
CBC
A former GTA daycare worker who pleaded guilty to slapping, kneeing and dragging five children has been given no jail time.
Magdelene Vasanthkumar, now 52, worked at BrightPath Maple on Maple Avenue — one of two locations owned by BrightPath Early Learning Centre and Child Care in Milton, Ont.
Security video from the daycare that was submitted as evidence in the case shows Vasanthkumar slapping children, kneeing them, pulling their hair, twisting their ears and dragging them across the floor.
Vasanthkumar pleaded guilty in a Milton courtroom on Thursday to five counts of assault.
A judge handed her a 15-month conditional sentence to be served in the community, with the first seven months to be completed in home confinement. She was also given three years of probation.
The mother of one of the victims says Thursday's sentence brings some closure but doesn't go far enough.
"This is not fair. I feel this is not the justice I was looking for — these are children," she said. CBC News is not naming her to protect the identity of her son because he is an underage victim.
"She deserves to go to jail, for sure. The pain that she has caused to every child, and to us as parents — words can't describe it. She should suffer, just the way we suffered."
The mother of two spoke out in November of last year after she was informed two former staff members assaulted her toddler at the centre. She says she watched videos at a police station of her son, who was nearly two years old at the time, being kicked, struck, kneed and dragged.
Both workers were charged at the time with assault after an investigation by the Halton Regional Police Service.
Vasanthkumar's offences all occurred in 2020. She was charged on Sept. 29, 2021.
The case against a 22-year-old woman who faces six counts of assault is still before the courts.
At the time of the allegations, BrightPath Kids said it fired the employees and supported investigations by the Children's Aid Society (CAS) and Halton police.
"Mistreatment or unkind behaviour towards children is completely unacceptable and will never be tolerated at any of our centres," the company said in a statement in November of last year.
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