On August 31 at 7:45 in the morning my son Colton James was dropped off at his babysitters house. At 3pm I went to pick him up. I got my baby home and we noticed scratches on his neck and face and so we checked the rest of his body and the horrors we saw when we took off his pants blew us away. His right leg is what I saw first 3 curved bruises on his thigh. I looked over and saw his left leg swollen and red. I lifted them up and both of the back of his legs were red swollen and bruised. But what we didn’t know was that up under his diaper was a different story. My mother in law was there with me and she looked at my sons butt before I did and covered him up and immediately told me to call 911. I took one look and my belly dropped to the floor. His whole entire buttcheeks were brusied black and blue. And that’s when I left to go to her house but I called the police on the way. Since then it took the investigators a week to get her arrested and not only that she is being charged with misdemeanor child abuse instead of felony child abuse because she didn’t cause any broken bones or mental deficits. Even though my son wakes up 3 or 4 times a night screaming because he is scared or waking up during naps screaming and fighting until I can calm him down. Or how about the fact my son trust no one now but me and my fiancé. In those two weeks he went to this babysitter he was in the hospital 2 times. He has also lost 2 pounds and was dehydrated when we took him. He also had Petechiae around both eyes and his eyes also looked bruised but neither me nor the doctors noticed that. He screamed and kicked everyday he had to go to her and was trying to tell me that she was hurting him but since my son is only 1 years old and can’t speak I didn’t listen. The day before she beat him he come home with a scratch on his face and a busted lip but she gave explanations for it. She said my son fell with his hands in his mouth but even I and everyone else knows that my son falls with his hands out. But we didn’t think anything of it until the next and final day. It took 6 days for his bruises and scars to leave his body but when will they leave his mind and heart. We want to petition for Colton James so we can get the charges that she needs to be given. We need to show that no one gets off easy when you beat a child. So if we can get up to 1k or more signatures we might just be able to give this little one year old boy the justice he deserves