Background: News footage of the Cherished Legacy Academy in Las Vegas, Nev. (KLAS). Inset: A photo of the boy provided to KLAS in their investigation (KLAS).
A Nevada mom who came to pick up her 9-year-old son from a child care center plans to sue after finding her son’s hands bound behind his back.
Kala Hall, whose age was not provided, spoke to Las Vegas-based CBS affiliate KLAS about finding her 9-year-old son Kody when she came to pick him up on March 20. She told the outlet that when she arrived, her son’s hands were bound behind his back.
When she found him, she said he “appeared dead.”
Hall told KLAS, “[H]e appeared dead to me. He was on his stomach. His mouth was open. His head was tilt[ed], and no one had an answer for me.”
Hall told KLAS that her son has autism, but is verbal. Despite his ability to speak, he didn’t tell his mother what happened.
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police investigated the incident after Hall reported it to them, but they declined to move forward with a criminal investigation. According to KLAS, detectives stated that Kody had been seen playing with the blanket that was wrapped around him. The police told KLAS in an email that “evidence does not support the claim that a crime was committed.”
In their coverage of the initial police report, KLAS said that officers didn’t believe that Kody or a student could have bound the 9-year-old. An employee also reportedly told police that the children were playing “cops and robbers.”
Hall signaled that she intended to sue the facility. Her attorney, Ramzy Ladah of Ladah Law Firm, pointed to alleged negligence on the part of the facility’s supervisors and employees. He told KLAS that the suit wasn’t “just about Kody. It’s about making sure day cares properly care for children and don’t abuse them.”
Surveillance video from inside the room where Kody was allegedly bound was shown to Hall after she brought the story to KLAS’ investigative unit. But she said that her boy couldn’t be seen on camera. Still, one of the facility’s employees reportedly claimed “she could only see his feet,” but Hall told KLAS, “I find it very hard that she could not see him.” Hall also told KLAS that she believed the same employee was using her cellphone at the time.
KLAS reached out to Cherished Legacy Academy and stated that they “acted swiftly to communicate with the family, reported the incident to local authorities, and immediately conducted an internal investigation.” After reviewing the video footage and conducting interviews and on-site visits, the licensing board “did not indicate any violations related to this incident and authorities have closed their case.”
A spokesperson from Nevada’s Child Care and Development Program who confirmed to KLAS that an investigation into the incident is ongoing.
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