A North Carolina daycare teacher has been arrested after she was accused of breaking a young child’s leg while pulling him into a seated position.
Ashley Nicole Taris is charged with felony child abuse inflicting serious bodily injury, according to a warrant viewed by Us Weekly.
The incident allegedly took place on August 22, 2025, when Taris, 24, was working at KinderCare in Raleigh.
The child told investigators that he was injured after Taris pulled him into a “criss-cross applesauce” position. The alleged incident caused him to experience a fracture to his lower leg, according to the warrant.
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The boy underwent a medical evaluation, and it was concluded that he sustained a spiral fracture of the tibia, according to CBS 17.
Following the incident, Taris was disqualified from providing childcare by state regulators in November 2025, according to a complaint filed in Wake County court.
KinderCare has also issued a statement, confirming that Taris is no longer employed by the company and has not worked at the daycare center since October 2025, according to WRAL.
“At KinderCare, the safety and well-being of the children in our care is always our top priority,” a KinderCare spokesperson said. “When this incident occurred last summer, we followed our safety protocols and immediately notified both the child’s family and the appropriate agencies.”
The statement continued, “Following guidance from state officials, Ms. Taris was briefly allowed to continue teaching in accordance with an approved safety plan. However, as is sometimes the case in investigations, licensing officials subsequently contacted us in October of 2025 and asked us to remove Ms. Taris from the classroom while they continued their investigation.”
“We promptly placed her on administrative leave at that time, removing her from the center,” the KinderCare spokesperson concluded. “Ms. Taris did not return to our center since being placed on administrative leave, and she is no longer a KinderCare employee.”
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Taris filed a civil complaint against the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services in January after she received the written notification that she had been disqualified from providing childcare, according to WRAL.
In her complaint, Taris stated that she disagreed with the decision and requested that it be withdrawn. A judge has since delayed the civil case pending the outcome of her child abuse charges, per WRAL.
Taris is next scheduled to appear in court on April 30. It is not currently clear if she has entered a plea or retained legal counsel.
The Wake County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to Us Weekly’s request for comment regarding the case.
