Outrage spread across the internet earlier this month as videos of daycare employees terrifying the young children in their care surfaced. In the videos, a worker can be seen wearing a scary Halloween mask, screaming at terrorized children.
Since the videos began circulating, the employees in question have been terminated.
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CW: Some of the content of this article may be disturbing.
The Lil’ Blessings Child Care & Learning Center in Hamilton, Mississippi, is under fire for horrifying videos.
Posted to Facebook and other social media sites, the videos were shot within the daycare by another employee, whose identity is not known.
The videos surfaced as early as Wednesday, October 5th.
The videos were posted to Reddit by a user who goes by mississippiwildman. In them, screaming children cower as one worker wears a mask resembling that from the movie Scream , as another directs her to punish kids who have been poorly behaved.
In another clip, the person filming walks into one room where the masked employee is asking which kids are misbehaved.
Another employee instructs her, telling her which kids have been good, and which have been bad.
In another clip, the masked employee enters a separate room to “scare” kids into cleaning.
The children, who all seem to be preschool age, scream and cry as the “monster” demands that they begin cleaning. At one point, she chases a child and picks him up, putting him back in the toy area.
Since the videos surfaced, the employees involved have been fired.
According to the Munroe Journal, Sheila Sanders, who owns the daycare , fired the individuals when she was made aware of the situation: “I contacted my licensure, and she has gotten involved. The people that did those acts are no longer with us. They were fired. I wasn’t here at the time and wasn’t aware they were doing that. I don’t condone that and never have.”
This has been happening on separate occasions.
One clip was filmed back in September, while another one was filmed the Tuesday before the videos first surfaced online, according to the Associated Press . Sanders confirmed that she was unaware of the incident from September.
After the videos went viral, the former employees were charged with felony child abuse.
The Monroe County Sheriff’s Department posted to Facebook that one set of parents whose child was present during the incidents had decided to press charges against the former employees .
Four people have been charged with three counts of felony child abuse.
The former employees are Sierra McCandless, Oci-Anna Kilburn, Jennifer Newman, and Shyenne Shelton. A fifth employee, Traci Hutson, has been charged with the misdemeanors of failure to report abuse by a mandatory reporter and simple assault against a minor.
One parent spoke up about the incident.
Katelyn Johnson is the mother of Pierce, the two-year-old boy who was picked up during one of the incidents. She spoke about the trauma her toddler son has experienced.
“He has reactions to the specific mask that she used, and we’ve had a few nights where it’s hard for him to either go to bed or he’ll be waking up in the middle of the night but it’s not anything that positive reinforcement can’t help with,” she told the Monroe Journal .
She further explained that she is not one of the parents who filed charges.
“I hope, for anything, there is justice for the children and at the end of this, all the women involved are brought to light with all the damage they have done and the trauma brought to the families, the parents and the children,” she said, further explaining that she will wait until the investigation is completed before decided whether or not to press charges.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments.
h/t: Monroe Journal
