India Bryant, 35, has pleaded not guilty to assaulting a 4-year-old boy in her care when she was a preschool teacher at George L. Forbes Early Learning Center in East Cleveland.
The alleged incident happened on April 25. She's since been fired.
Bryant posted bond, and a pretrial is scheduled for June 27 in East Cleveland Municipal Court.
The victim's mother, Jovan Reese, said her worst fear came true after her 4-year-old son, Arrison, told her Bryant slapped him in the face.
In Early May, Reese sat down with me.
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She said, "I'm sitting at the kitchen table and he [Arrison] walks past me, and I see this red mark on his face. And I say, ‘Well, son, where did you get that mark from?’ And he said, ‘Ms. Bryant slapped me."
Reese said that when she contacted the school about what her son reported, she got differing explanations about what had happened. She said it went from her son getting into an altercation with another student to Bryant wiping his face.
She immediately filed a police report and took Arrison to his pediatrician, who noted a small two-centimeter red scratch on the right side of his nose on his right cheek and no significant bruising on his face.
An arrest warrant states Bryant “knowing did cause physical harm” to Arrison “by striking him in the face with an open hand, leaving a mark on his face.”
Step Forward issued the following statement for News 5's original report:
“We are saddened by the recent allegations at one of our Head Start centers. We want to express our sincerest apologies for any distress or concern this may have caused. Step Forward takes these allegations very seriously and we are addressing them according to our agency policies and procedures.
Step Forward has a zero-tolerance policy for any form of aggression toward children at any of our centers, and the safety and well-being of the children in our care are of top priority. We are committed to providing a safe, nurturing, and supportive environment for all children in our programs. We will continue to work diligently to ensure that our centers are places where children can learn, grow, and thrive.”
