Parents Say Their 5-Year-Old Son Was Dragged Around by a Rope at Daycare

The parents of a 5-year-old boy say their son was dragged by a rope looped around his neck at daycare while the person in charge did nothing.

Sarah and Jose Berrios told Nashville's WTVF-TV they grew concerned last Wednesday when their son Cameron returned home, pulling on the back of his neck.

"I asked him what was wrong," Sarah Berrios told the station.  "And that's when I saw this huge red welt on the back of his neck."

But when she heard his explanation of how it happened, she became even more alarmed.

"He said children at the YMCA had put a rope around his neck, and they were pulling him," she said.  "So I went back up to the YMCA and made them fill out a report.  I confronted the teacher that was watching him, and he claimed he didn't see any of this going on."

She said it took several days for the rope burn on Cameron's neck to heal. After multiple requests, they said the YMCA finally let them view surveillance footage of the incident this week.

"There was one particular child that kept tugging on the rope, so Cameron's whole body is just flopping around," Sarah said of the footage. "And the YMCA working was clearly aware of what was going on, because you could see him in the video."

They have filed a formal complaint and reached out to several employees within the YMCA organization. They told WTVF they won't stop until they get an explanation.

"Any adult in their right mind would never ever let this happen to any child, and he was hired to work with children," Sarah said.

A spokeswoman for the YMCA of Middle Tennessee told WTVF in a statement they are aware of the incident and have suspended the employee in question without pay, pending an internal investigation.

According to the station, the employee involved had completed abuse prevention training required for all YMCA staff. He had only been working for the YMCA since November.