Nanny cams exist for a reason.

Horrific!

A Jersey City couple was shocked Monday afternoon when they picked up their 19-month-old son from a Jersey City daycare center and found his face bruised and his lip swollen.

The boy's dad couldn't find the words to describe his feelings when he sat down with his wife and an administrator from Sunnyside Academy in Port Liberte and watched a video of an employee upending the boy from a box he was standing on, sending the innocent child crashing to the floor and smashing his face.

The employee in the video, Ann Bactawar, 26, of Jersey City, was charged last night with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child and two counts of child abuse, Hudson County First Assistant Prosecutor Debra Simon said today. The second count on each charge stems from video footage that shows a second child being abused by Bactawar, Simon said.

Simon said the investigation is continuing to determine if more acts of abuse were committed at the daycare center. She said the Division of Youth and Family Services would be contacted and that parents of children who are attend daycare at Sunnyside would be notified of Bactawar's arrest.

Authorities have not released the video.

An administrator at Sunnyside refused to comment yesterday and no one was available this morning.

"The daycare center called Monday afternoon and said my son bit his lip," said the father of the 19-month-old. "We said 'OK. No problem.' We know that accidents happen and kids fall down sometimes."

But when the boy was picked up from the daycare center later Monday, his parents knew this was no ordinary fall.

"His face was swollen and there was an abrasion under his chin," the father said."So today we sat down with an administrator and the video was shocking. You can't believe that someone would do that to a 19-month-old."

The 19-month-old's dad said he believes Bactawar had been with the daycare center only a month or so. He added that since his son began attending there in August, there have been no other problems. An administrator at the daycare center declined to comment other than to say that the police are investigating the incident.

The administrator and the boy's dad also watched in horror yesterday as the worker left the 19-month-old crying on the floor and picked up a younger child by the arm, carried the child across the room and dropped the child on the floor.

"You see this stuff on TV and you never think that it will happen to you or your child," the 19-month-old's father said.
By Ron Zeitlinger
The Jersey Journal