— A Raleigh woman said she was alerted last week that her 1-year-old son was abused at the Apple Tree Day Care on Old Poole Road.

Kassandra Sharpe said she visited 20 day care centers before she settled on the right one for her son, Elijah. She said it was not long before she fell in love with her son's teacher.

"I thought she was kind of like a grandmother," Sharpe said. "I felt very comfortable with him being there."

Sharpe said she was shocked when she received a message from the day care director about Elijah's teacher.

"When I called her, she said that an incident has happened. And I said ‘what?’ And she said a teacher was aggressive," she said.

The day care director told Sharpe she discovered the incident on surveillance cameras while reviewing some video footage with another parent.

"If I had not seen the tape I would have not believed it," Sharpe said. "I saw that woman take my baby and she threw him into a bookcase."

Sharpe said there were three separate incidents involving her son.

"They were in circle time and she took that container and hit my baby in the head with it, and he was just sitting there," she said.

Sharpe said she reported the incidents to police. And while the day care director said she contacted the state, parents of the other children in the class were never notified.

The teacher was allowed to return to the classroom the day after the abuse was discovered.

"We still didn't know that the abuse took place, but they did," Sharpe said.

A statement from Apple Tree Day Care said in part, "The employee involved was never left alone with any of the children. Notifying parents of such incidents is a difficult and delicate task."