A former employee of Bright Future Childcare Center, a childcare facility at the University of New Mexico-Gallup, is facing child abuse charges after she reportedly bit a child.
On Feb. 28 around 4:15 pm, a woman called Metro Dispatch asking to file a report with the McKinley County Sheriff’s Office. The woman said her child was abused while under the care of the Bright Futures Childcare Center, located at the University of New Mexico-Gallup, 700 Lions Hall Dr.
The woman said she’d contacted the Gallup Police Department initially, but they referred her to the UNM-Gallup police. McKinley County Deputy Jarad Albert was asked to file a report to give to the campus police.
According to Albert’s report, the woman told him that Tammy Hall, Bright Future’s Co-Director, had called her to inform her about an incident involving her infant daughter and a daycare worker who was identified as Triniquea J. Arviso.
Hall told the victim’s mother that she heard the victim crying in pain from the infant room. Hall said she entered the infant room and found Arviso, 28, holding the victim. Hall reportedly asked Arviso what happened, to which the employee said, “I did something bad.”
Arviso allegedly admitted to her boss that she bit the infant on the shoulder. Hall said she saw marks on the alleged victim’s left shoulder.
After getting the background information from the victim’s mother, Albert was told that MCSO was going to take over the investigation and that he was going to lead it. He and Sgt. Timo Molina drove over to UNM-Gallup and met with a UNM campus officer.
The campus officer provided some footage of the incident.
In the surveillance video, Arviso can reportedly be seen alone in the infant room around 10:45 am on Feb. 28. In the video she is holding the victim in her arms and walking her over to a rocking chair. While Arviso is walking toward the rocking chair she is holding the infant over her left shoulder. At one point she ducks her head down to the left shoulder area of the infant.
No biting can be seen in the video.
Albert and Molina spoke to multiple daycare workers about the incident. One coworker said she spoke to Arviso after the incident. She said Arviso was shaking and crying and claimed to be stressed and overwhelmed.
The coworker who was working in the infant room with Arviso at the time of the incident told the officers that Arviso had never had any problems with any of the kids before. She said her coworker was never aggressive or violent.
The woman said she left for her break around 10:30 am and returned around 10:55 am. She found Arviso putting the four kids who were at the daycare that day in their highchairs for lunch, and after she did that, she left the room crying. Arviso was reportedly gone for five minutes, and when she came back her coworker asked her what was wrong, to which Arviso responded by telling her to look at the infant’s arm.
Arviso admitted to several of her coworkers that she bit the infant and she resigned from her position at the daycare soon after. She was gone before the infant’s parents could arrive.
A judge signed a warrant for Arviso’s arrest on Feb. 29, and she was arrested on March 5. She is facing charges of child abuse, which is a third-degree felony. Her preliminary hearing is scheduled for March 27.
Staff Reports
