Cocoa daycare teacher accused of angrily striking, tossing child to the ground during apparent timeout
COCOA, Fla. - A daycare worker in Cocoa was arrested after she angrily struck and tossed a child on the floor during an apparent timeout, according to police.
Marlissa Qyera Rozier is facing a child abuse charge after video surveillance showed her picking a child up two to three feet off the ground and forcibly throwing her to the floor in a daycare room, an affidavit shows.
The investigation began on August 13 when the owner of M & M Family Care Center, Inc. told detectives that she saw a teacher abusing a young girl inside a classroom on surveillance. The child's guardian also told detectives she was crying more than usual and said her bottom was hurting the night before, police said.
When detectives reviewed the surveillance footage, they saw the child playing with a toy and "happily jumping around," an affidavit shows. Rozier said some words and then angrily walked to the child and struck her on the head as she fell to the ground.
Mugshot of Marlissa Rozier (Brevard County Sheriffs Office)
About 20 minutes later, Rozier approached the child again, grabbed her by the arms, and lifted her three to four feet off the ground. Rozier then aggressively walked the girl to a corner and tossed her on the floor, causing the child to hit her head and body against the wall.
"It is heartbreaking. I don’t like to look at it because it gets me angry every time I see it," said Annie Smith, Journ'i's mother.
Smith recounted how her daughter tried to explain what happened, saying, "She told her sister, she said my teacher hit me like this, and she jumped up on the floor and fell back down. I told my husband, ‘Look, pay attention to what she's saying.’"
A teacher at the daycare also said she went to the classroom after hearing a thump but was told by Rozier that the child had fallen and "all was well," arrest records show. When confronted, Rozier claimed again the girl had fallen before leaving for lunch and not returning to work for the rest of the day.
Cocoa Police Department spokesperson Yvonne Martinez praised the daycare’s response.
"The daycare did everything right. They took the action they needed to take. The employee is no longer employed there," said Martinez.
Detectives said they also identified other victims in the classroom, and additional charges are "anticipated" once the children are identified.
Rozier worked at the daycare for two years.