Daycare employee allegedly stepped on a child before nap time. Here is what happened at the first day of the trial

A Bedford mother filed a lawsuit seeking more than $25,000 in damages after a State College KinderCare Learning Center employee allegedly exerted severe and life-threatening force on the child's back with her foot so he would lie down for nap time.

The lawsuit, which was filed in 2014, reached its first day of trial on Monday. The jury, which consists of nine men and eight women, heard testimony on Monday from the child's mother and the nurse who helped treated the boy at the emergency room.

According to the civil action complaint, Chris Miley was an employee of KinderCare, a for-profit child care service that serves children who are 6 weeks old through 12 years old. Miley was supervising the child for about nine hours on Oct. 3, 2014 in the facility's preschool classroom despite not being an assigned preschool teacher.

In the presence of another KinderCare employee, Miley instructed the child that it was time to take a nap. Miley determined the child was not behaving or following directions, so she allegedly used her body weight to force him to lie on the floor.

The force used was of such severity that the child was unable to breathe, which led the the onset of petechiae, according to the complaint. Petechiae is a visible condition where blood vessels burst underneath the skin due to lack of oxygen. Red dots can be seen on the face, neck and clavicle as a result.

The complaint said the child also sustained bruising to his back and the second KinderCare employee failed to intervene and stop Miley.

When the mother went to pick up her child, she immediately noticed the red dots associated with petechiae. KinderCare, as a child care service operation, is required by law to report suspected abuse, which the complaint said they failed to do.

The mother said there was no visible mark on his back when she first saw her child, but there was a visible mark when she arrived at her mother's house.

The incident was reported when the child was observed at Mount Nittany Medical Center.

The medical director of the Children Advocacy Center said the child's injuries were the result of excessive and acute pressure exerted on him by Miley who later admitted that she placed her hand on the child's shoulders and her elbow on his lower back to help him go to sleep, according to the complaint.

"The injuries sustained were the direct and proximate result of negligence of KinderCare and Chris Miley," according to the complaint.

A nurse from MNMC testified that she remembered the child's visit because it was abnormal for anyone to have a shoe print on their back. In addition to the shoe print, she testified that she saw petechiae under his eyes. She added that petechiae generally form when someone forcefully vomits or is forcefully struggling, similar to rape cases.

The nurse also testified it was problematic that the child was first placed in the fast-track portion of the emergency room, which is primarily used for sutures and band-aids. She testified that the child's condition warranted more care than that.

She also testified there were no complaints of pain from the child at any point and he was moving freely in the examination room.

Edward Greenberg, one of two defense attorneys for Miley, questioned the consistency of the mother's story.

In a previous deposition, the woman allegedly told Ferguson Township police that her No. 1 goal was pressing charges. During her testimony at trial, she said the petechiae was visible on Oct. 8 and cleared up on its own within a week or two. Her deposition said that his back was normal one day later and there were no marks of any sort.

The child was enrolled at the Goddard School, a child care service, in 2014. The mother testified that he was enrolled for about two months. Greenberg's questioning showed that the child was enrolled from Jan. 17 until Jan. 23 before he was expelled for behavioral problems.

The child was enrolled at Discovery Daycare in the fall of 2014. The mother testified about an incident when she and the child met with several daycare employees to discuss the child's tantrums, which lasted about two hours. The child was eventually expelled from the facility.

The trial is scheduled to continue Tuesday and conclude Friday.

This story was originally published April 9, 2018 at 3:54 PM with the headline "Daycare employee allegedly stepped on a child before nap time. Here is what happened at the first day of the trial."