Mother Demands Answers and Sues After Video Shows Her 4-Year-Old Yanked and Dangled Upside Down at a Los Angeles Preschool

Brie’ann Battle did not hear about the incident from Kinder Kids Christian Preschool. She saw it on a classroom camera, about a month late. The March 14, 2024, footage from the Mid-Wilshire school at 5353 West Pico Boulevard shows a worker grabbing her 4-year-old son by the arms, pinning him to the floor while other children watch, then lifting him by the ankles and dangling him upside down. Battle said her son later bruised. She pulled him out of a school he had attended since he was about 18 months old.

« No parent should ever have to witness their child being treated with such violence, » she said. Local reporting, relying on Battle, identified the person in the video as Artea Kirkland, the daycare’s owner. That is an allegation, not a criminal finding. Battle said she asked for a straight conversation and got a denial. She alleged Kirkland played a different clip — the boy outside, « being active » — to rewrite what the camera had already shown. ABC7 aired the confrontation.

A Police Report, Then a Lawsuit

Battle filed a child-abuse report with the Los Angeles Police Department. A resignation, she said, was not enough. « The owner’s attempt to cover this up makes it a criminal act. » She asked the state to pull the facility’s license. With a lawyer, she sued in Los Angeles County Superior Court, for herself and as guardian ad litem for her son, naming Kinder Kids Christian Child Development Center and Artea Kirkland. The complaint lists assault and battery, negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, and Ralph Act claims. She sought more than $100,000 in damages, medical costs, and punitive damages. LAPD said its investigation was open. No criminal charges had been announced.

Daycares that handle children like inventory show up in The AEGIS Alliance’s files next to institutions that did the same thing for decades. See the New Orleans archdiocese’s clergy-abuse cover-up, $305 million settlement, and the archbishop’s exit, and the older report on Hollywood’s open secret. More of this beat is in Crime News.