Word On The Curb… A daycare director in Charlotte has been charged with six counts of child abuse stemming from an incident in February that was captured on video.
According to warrants, Leslye Denise Torrence, the director of Midwood Learning Academy, “created a substantial risk by transporting the victim in a vehicle without a car seat or seatbelt and the rear driver’s side door left open while the vehicle was in motion.”
At the time of the February incident, video footage showed a toddler being thrown across the laps of other unbuckled children in a moving car. An anonymous woman told local reporters that the children were unsupervised while playing in a park. When the daycare workers were confronted, they tossed the kids into the backseat of the car and drove off.
After the video surfaced, the daycare was ordered by the state to close. However, the daycare is still in operation because it holds two licenses, and only one was suspended after the February video circulated.
Torrence was granted a $60,000 bond and was released from the Mecklenburg County Jail on Saturday, March 9.
