PHILADELPHIA (WTXF) - A North Philadelphia daycare is under fire after a video surfaced of someone recording a 2-year-old girl inside the facility, while bullying her.
Jennifer Ortiz says she was sent a screen recording of a video on Instagram on Tuesday, showing her two-year-old niece, Auburey, inside Amazing Kidz Academy LLC on East Erie Street.
She does not know the person who recorded the video.
It shows Auburey in front of the camera and a voice saying, "If you don't get out of my face, with your big a**, what they need to do is stop feeding you."
"It's just, it's horrible, how could you speak to someone's kids like that?" says Oritz. "It's very shocking, and in front of other kids it hurt, it hurt a lot."
Ortiz spoke on behalf of Auburey's primary parent, who did not want to appear on camera for an interview.
"Now she has to take off work to find another daycare for her, is that fair? No, it's not," she says.
Co-owner of Amazing Kidz Academy LLC, Lisa Smith, says they are still investigating who posted what they call a "mean and senseless" post on social media.
However, Smith says they know a staff member did not record it. They believe it was a parent who was supposed to be observing her own child.
"We at Amazing Kidz Academy LLC were saddened to hear of the mean and senseless post on social media," Smith said in an e-mailed statement to Fox 29.
"We intend to reach out to the family of the child and try to fix this matter so that they know how much we love and value all our little ones. This will and must serve as a teachable moment for all of us, that what you say matters. We are committed to provide high quality, early learning care here at Amazing Kidz Academy LLC for the children and families of the Juniata Park community. The person who filmed and posted the video DID NOT HAVE OUR PERMISSION to do so. The post was NOT made by any of our staff. An investigation is underway to uncover the facts."
Online records show that the daycare is in compliance.
Since 2017, they have received four complaints during inspections conducted by the state department of human services, which included a violation of child to staff ratios.
The report says the daycare came up with a plan of correction for each of the complaints and they have all been finalized.
Ortiz says until they find out exactly what happened, they will continue to push for answers.
"Something definitely needs to get done, definitely needs to get done, and we're not going to stop until it happens."
On Thursday, FOX 29 spoke with the woman who took the video.
"I take full responsibility for my actions and I really just genuinely want to apologize to the mother and her family and anyone that I've hurted in this whole situation."
Talking through tears, the mom who took that vide says it was a mistake. She meant to send the video to a friend not to share it with the world. She says she knows that doesn't take away what she did.