LEAGUE CITY – The owner of a League City daycare is accused of injuring a 5-year-old student, according to a police report.
The boy's mother says her son came home from Just for Kids Learning Center Monday with cuts and bruises on his ears.
"My son told me it happened at school," the boy's mother Kara Rice said. "I took him in the bathroom and I turned on the light and that's when I saw the bruises. I was just angry, upset, sick to my stomach."
Rice says her son claims the owner, Anner Montgomery, choked him so hard that he threw up.
League City Police said an investigation is in its early stages and as of Tuesday evening, no charges have been filed.
"As far as saying I choked him, I deny that," Montgomery said. "I did not choke him. I picked him up by one arm and I pulled his ear and put him in the other room."
Montgomery says the boy was kicking and screaming, refusing to participate in a spelling activity.
"I didn't feel I was hurting him," Montgomery said. "I was just doing it to try to get him under control. I'm sorry if they feel like I hurt him and I apologize. It wasn't done out of anger."
Rice admits her son can be rambunctious at times, but said using physical force to discipline him is unacceptable.
"There are better ways to deal with it, choking and doing some of those things are not the right way," Rice said.
According to Family Protective Services, the agency responsible for licensing daycares, Just for Kids Learning Center was cited in 2011 for using an unauthorized form of discipline called "flying airplanes" where children were forced to stand against the wall with their arms raised for several minutes at a time.
The agency found the "flying airplanes" disciplinary method to be inappropriate because it was intended to cause the children physical discomfort.