California daycare employee fired for hitting 5-year-old Black girl with shoe

A mother is outraged after learning her autistic 5-year-old daughter was hit by a shoe, thrown by a daycare employee.

Social media is in an uproar after a video surfaced of an Inglewood, Cal., daycare employee throwing her shoe at a little girl. The viral video stemmed from an incident that occurred last month at Destiny Development Center, where surveillance cameras caught a teacher’s aide taking off her shoe and chucking it at a 5-year-old girl named Beautiful, who is heard crying after being hit. 

The family of a 5-year-old Black child says an Inglewood daycare worker threw a shoe at their child, who has special needs, and that allegedly, no other staff intervened or reported it. The three workers seen in the video have since been fired. This behavior can NEVER be… pic.twitter.com/Fxhff6Uek4— Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) February 6, 2026

In addition to the employee identified as Ms. Emily, seen throwing her shoe, the video also shows two other employees who appear to be laughing as they witnessed the incident. Though the aide is later heard saying, “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to do it,” the child’s mother is left in disbelief. 

“I really thought my baby was safe with them,” Michelae Jones, Beautiful’s mother, told KTLA. 

Jones recalls her daughter, who has been diagnosed with autism,  being the first to tell her about the incident the evening after it occurred, prompting her to confront the center’s director, Danielle Williams. Williams reportedly launched an investigation into the incident during which the teacher’s aide involved claimed she was “throwing shoes into another room that weren’t supposed to be there and [the child] accidentally got hit in the head with the shoe.”

“My school, what we stand for, it’s not child abuse,” Williams told reporters. “We don’t hire child abusers.” 

As a result of the incident, Williams not only fired the employee who threw the show, but also the other two employees who witnessed the incident and failed to report it. 

“We go through every procedure for people to get employed at this facility — a caregiver background check, FBI index, everything and then the training that goes along with it,” the center director added. “I wouldn’t wish this on anybody’s child. We don’t stand for it, we don’t agree with it.”

However, Jones and her family are still left with a lot of questions. “I want to know how often are they reviewing the footage?” Kira Townsend, Beautiful’s aunt, said. “How do you have a business and you don’t review the footage unless a parent says something? Why do we have to wait for my niece to come and tell us, ‘Hey, my teacher hit me in the ear with a shoe.’”

The incident is now being investigated by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department as Jones seeks justice for her little girl.

“I’m shocked and horrified that my innocent baby was harmed and humiliated in front of everyone. This teacher should not only be fired immediately but criminally prosecuted for child abuse,” the mother noted in a statement, per NBC LA.