FORT BELVOIR — Local authorities classified the treatment of a 4-year-old child at the North Post Child Development Center at Fort Belvoir in Virginia as child abuse in January 2025. The child, the son of U.S. Army major Amanda Feindt, was at the center on January 14, 2025.

Surveillance video from the daycare showed staff stepping on the child's feet and pinning his legs under a table a few days before January 14. Army officials allowed Feindt and her husband to review only a limited portion of the footage and did not provide copies. "My son barely has the words to describe what happened to him," Feindt said. "You can see it in the video — they're screaming while the abuse is taking place."

Feindt and her husband recorded audio while reviewing the footage and described the scenes in a memorandum to Defense Department officials. According to the memorandum, three staff members watched a teacher pin the child's legs and mock him without intervening. Fort Belvoir officials stated that remaining footage had been deleted after review. The Incident Determination Committee did not substantiate the abuse claims regarding Feindt's son. Feindt's request to attend the committee's hearing was denied.

Ryan Sweazey, a retired Air Force officer and former inspector general, said denying requests to attend such hearings is a standard tactic in administrative cases. "This is a standard tactic in administrative cases," Sweazey said. "They tell you the investigation is done, and if you want to challenge it, you have to file a FOIA request. The report then comes back heavily redacted months or years later." He added, "It's one entity acting as judge, jury and executioner. There is no real due process, and there are almost no checks and balances." Feindt's son later accumulated roughly 20 behavioral incident reports in his first month at a new daycare. Doctors stated that the child's symptoms resembled post-traumatic stress.