Honk News (New York City, NY) – A lawsuit and police records reveal alarming allegations against a teacher at a Queens daycare for autistic toddlers, who reportedly bruised a 3-year-old’s arm and then applied hand sanitizer to his mouth, with claims that the school attempted to conceal the incident.
Heidi Velasco Munoz, an educator, admitted to jeopardizing a child’s safety and expressed to authorities during her arrest following the 2023 event that she could not provide a reason for placing hand sanitizer in the mouth of a non-verbal child.
The legal action alleges that the Happy Dragon Children Learning Center in Corona failed to inform the parents about the abuse and did not terminate Munoz right away, even though it was recorded on the facility’s video surveillance.
“While justice has been done on the criminal side, we now look for justice on the civil side,” said the family’s attorneys, Sanford Rubenstein and Mark Shirian.
Upon arriving home from daycare in March 2023, the mother was shocked to find her son’s arm marked with bruises.
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“When I took his coat off and saw those bruises on his arms, I automatically called the daycare,” Gentile said.
However, the daycare refused to cooperate with her and the boy’s father when they returned the following day. They even went so far as to produce a misleading incident report, alleging that their non-verbal son had bitten himself, which was signed by both the teacher and the daycare’s director.
The daycare declined to provide surveillance footage showing the troubling incident for hours when father German Vasquez came back the following day, prompting him to contact the police.
Authorities have detailed the footage, indicating that it depicts Munoz “forcefully restraining” the distressed, non-verbal child between her legs, taking a toy from his mouth, “deliberately flicking” his arm, and “compellingly placing an unidentified substance into [his] mouth.”
Gentile hurried her son to the hospital, believing that his teacher had been administering medication against his will. The results of the toxicology tests were negative.
After her arrest a month later, Munoz openly confessed to the police that she had forced hand sanitizer into the boy’s mouth, according to police reports.
A representative from the Queens District Attorney’s office stated that they had no details regarding Munoz or her case. However, records acquired through FOIL reveal that Munoz entered a guilty plea for endangering the welfare of a child in November 2023 and received a sentence of 15 days of community service.
After almost two years, the boy is thriving and enjoys his new school. However, his parents notice that he becomes anxious whenever they head in the direction of his former daycare.