San Diego

SDSO Investigating Child Abuse Allegation at Alpine Daycare

The San Diego County Sheriff's Department is investigating an allegation of child abuse at an Alpine daycare Thursday after a video posted on social media sparked outrage.

SDSO said the report stemmed from the video posted on social media; the video shows water being poured on a sleeping child.

Deputies arrived at the Alpine Children's Academy just off of Alpine Boulevard near Victoria Drive at about 2 p.m. to investigate the complaint.

Community Care Licensing Division also went to the school where they are conducting their own investigation.

The person who allegedly poured water on the toddler was 20-year-old teacher, Alyssa MacGrath, daughter of the academy's director. The person who reportedly took the video is the teacher's aide, 20-year-old Taylor Middleton.

Both women were fired immediately by the director.

The four-second video was posted to Middleton's social media account that later went viral in San Diego.

“What I see on the video today, I think it's way overblown. I’ve had three grandkids go to school here, nothing but good things from them," said Greg Erdmann, grandfather of a 3-year-old attending the daycare. "Even people who did it, are foolish enough to put it on [social media]. They didn't have malicious intent."

Alpine Daycare released the following statement:

"We at Alpine Children's Academy take this incident extremely seriously. We strive to create a safe and loving environment for our children and are saddened and disturbed that such a horrific abuse occurred to one of our dear children at our school. The actions you see in this video are disgusting, and we do not tolerate this type of behavior. The responsible teachers have been terminated, and state licensing well as law enforcement have been notified of these actions so that an investigation can take place. We want to thank our current families for their support and for continuing their child's enrolment [sic] at Alpine Children's Academy. We sincerely apologize to our families and our community."

The owner of Alpine Children's Academy told NBC 7 that he had been fielding calls all day, including some hate calls.

"I think it's deserving -- you can't treat children that way, I wouldn't do that to my dog," said one concerned resident.

The owner also says the family of the 1-year-old in the video is staying at the daycare. He said the family is appreciative of how the school handled the situation. 

He also mentioned that only one family has decided to leave the daycare. 

It was not clear if any arrests were made. SDSO and Community Care Licensing Division are investigating the incident.

No other information was available.

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