CRYSTAL, Minn. (FOX 9) - A teacher at a daycare learning center in Crystal faces charges after an alleged slap that occurred on a student enrolled under her watch.
Crystal daycare teacher charged
What we know:
Javell Lena Cooper, 24, of Coon Rapids, faces two counts of malicious punishment of a child.
Crystal police say that on July 25, 2025, officers were dispatched to a child abuse report at a daycare located with a church on the 5000 block of West Broadway in Crystal.
Police say that the parent of a 3-year-old child arrived to pick up his son from the learning center and arrived to find the child crying hysterically.
Cooper allegedly told the parent that the child was crying because another child hit them the moment before, but the child later told the parent that Cooper had struck them instead.
Dig deeper:
The parents of the victim later contacted police and the church that operates the learning center, and surveillance footage that captured the incident was reviewed.
According to the charges, footage showed Cooper leaning back in a chair with her feet up on a table looking at a tablet, when the child walks up to her, and she slaps him in the ear.
The victim’s parents also reported that approximately a year prior, when the child was 2-years-old, they came home with significant bruising to their ear consistent with having been struck in the same way.
The Source: Information provided by charges filed in Hennepin County.