Abusive Swaddling At Daycare Leads To Arrests

Abusive swaddling has resulted in the arrest of two daycare workers in California.

Sisters Nazila and Lida Sharaf were taken in custody on Wednesday after a worker reported them to police. The pair have been charged with three counts of felony child neglect and abuse and four counts of misdemeanor child neglect and abuse.

The women ran the Universal Preschool LCC in Livermore. A former 19-year-old woman said the sisters resorted to what is being described as abusive swaddling during nap time. In short, the children were swaddled so tightly that they could not move.

The Livermore police department said in a statement:

“Two of the daycare facility employees were binding at least seven of the children’s upper torso and legs with blankets and other cloth type materials in order to restrict the child’s movement during naptimes. The suspects tightly wrapped the victims with blankets and other cloth material, which were secured with knots. The tightly wrapped cloth material restricted the victim’s ability to breathe comfortably and move their extremities.”

The victims were between the ages of seven and 11 months old. The Department of Social Services has reportedly closed the daycare as a result of the abuse allegations.

“They basically restrained these children, almost like a boa constrictor. All of these children could have died in the process of binding these extremities,” Officer Steve Goard explained.

The sisters are said to have known that some of their victims suffered from respiratory problems. However, this didn’t stop them from swaddling them to the point that they could not move. The police department described the situation as a “case of abuse and neglect where the victims were being restrained.”

Nazila and Lida Sharaf are currently behind bars at Santa Rita Jail.

What do you think about the abusive swaddling allegations made against the sisters who run Universal Preschool?

[Image via Shutterstock.com]