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Bill targets day-care abusers |
Child care providers who seriously injure children would face minimum two-year prison sentences under a state bill introduced Thursday.That bill was drafted in response to the 2008 Richland County case of Kendra Gaddie, a then-7-month girl who authorities say was slapped so hard by her home day care provider that it caused bleeding on her brain.Talisha Lavette Smith, a Summit neighborhood day care provider, was facing a maximum 20-year sentence after pleading guilty last month to harming Kendra, but was placed on five years’ probation.The current law carries no minimum sentences.“Children need advocates,” the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Mike Fair, R-Greenville, said Thursday. “There is a great amount of support from moms (for this bill). We’ve touched a nerve; now parents can have some comfort.”
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