HOUSTON – A former day care worker is facing four counts of injury to a child. The charges stem from an incident that happened in October 2018 at a northwest Harris County day care.
Brenda Bonner Harris, 60, is accused of "striking children on all body parts with a 14-inch stick/pointer" while working at the Happy Days Academy on Bammel North Houston Road.
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Court documents stated the incident involved 3- to 4-year-old children and the assaults were captured on video. Investigators said the video shows Harris "striking the children about the head, face, body, arms and legs as she walks around the room."
Investigators said that, when Child Protective Services investigators asked Harris about the incident captured on video, she at first denied hitting any children and said the stick was only a "scare tactic." But after she was shown the video, investigators said Harris "indicated she was overwhelmed" when she hit the children.
While the incident happened last year, a backlog in child abuse and child sex cases delayed Harris County Sheriff's Office investigators from getting the case to the District Attorney's Office until recently. But, sheriff's officials said they immediately determined there was no longer a threat to the children because Harris had been fired. CPS also cited the day care for "abuse in operation" and noted that the director at the time was also no longer employed by the business.
Harris is due back in court next month. Without commenting directly on this case, CPS officials said that, when a day care worker is cited in this type of case, their name goes into a database, so they cannot get another job in child care.
Channel 2 News Investigates contacted the day care's owner for comment, but she has not returned any of our messages.