A Las Vegas mom is alleging that the child care facility she sends her son to abused him. Her son was in the care of staff at Cherished Legacy Academy, and she found his hands bound at pickup time. While the mom believes that the facility was responsible for the incident, the school alleges that the child did it to himself.
Now, they are at odds over what happened. Meanwhile, an investigation is ongoing to try and figure out exactly what happened.
On March 20, 2025, mom Kala Hall arrived at the facility and found her 9-year-old son Kody, who appeared to be sleeping. When she got closer, she noticed his hands were bound.
“My brain, like, I couldn’t even process what I was looking at,” she told KLAS reporters. “I just literally was like, oh, maybe he just wrapped himself in the blanket, but then I reached down to, like, unravel him, and then that’s when I realized, like, no, this is not like a normal where I couldn’t pull it apart.”
Kody, who is on the autism spectrum, wouldn’t tell his mom what happened. “He just says, ‘Mommy, I’m sorry, I’ll be a good boy,'” Hall said. “But when I asked him, like, ‘Who did that?’ Or when anyone asks him, he’s like, ‘I don’t know.'” According to the mom, Cherished Legacy Academy staff wouldn’t give her an answer either. So she took him to the emergency room.
“I really feel like he could have died in that position. It was so tight around his stomach.”
At the hospital, staff called police, and an officer wrote a report for child abuse and neglect. Officer Zachary Gainey went to Cherished Legacy Academy to question staff. A worker told the officer that the children were playing cops and robbers. The staff member claimed the other children tied Kody up. Gainey didn’t believe that a child could have tied the boy’s hands behind his back.
Detectives were able to watch footage, Hall claimed. “Supposedly, nobody was watching,” she said. “My son wrapped this blanket around his neck, and then he goes in the corner and he kind of lies down and there’s no movement, but you can’t see, they can’t see how he got in that position.”
A spokesperson for Las Vegas Metro police said the investigation was ongoing. The facility is also facing state investigations.
In an investigation of the facility that was closed in October 2024, multiple violations were revealed. They included a lack of supervision, teachers heard yelling at children inappropriately, an inadequate number of toys and supplies, no vegetables, fruits, or milk served at lunch, and a janitor in the building who was not fingerprinted.
Hall is calling for firings and to have the facility closed. According to someone claiming to be “upper management,” Hall was able to view the footage. However, she claims that she hasn’t, despite asking multiple times.
If you suspect child abuse, you can call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-422-4453 (1-800-4-A-Child), or go to Childhelp.org. The hotline is available 24/7.
