Category Archives: Day Care

Child Abuse, Child Exploitation, Cruelty, Day Care, Indifference, Law Enforcement

Daycare workers facing charges of felony child abuse after scaring children with masks

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.jpg photo of Day Care workers fired for scaring Children
4 Day Care workers each face three counts of felony child abuse, a 5th worker faces charges of failure to report abuse by a mandatory reporter and simple assault against a minor.

Videos on Facebook show a day care worker wearing a Halloween mask and yelling at children

HAMILTON, MS  –  Four people linked to viral video footage of Mississippi daycare employees using a scary mask to frighten young children are facing charges of felony child abuse, and a fifth person faces two misdemeanor counts.

The daycare’s owner, Sheila Sanders, is not facing charges.  She has said that at least four of the employees were fired after the video came to light.

The videos, one filmed in September and another this month, were posted on social media.  They show a daycare worker at Lil’ Blessings Child Care & Learning Center in Hamilton, an unincorporated community in northeast Mississippi, wearing a Halloween mask similar to the one in the “Scream” movies and yelling at children who didn’t “clean up” or “act good.”

Children can be seen bawling, cowering in fear, and at times running from the masked employee.  Another employee gives directions, singling out which children have acted good or bad, The Associated Press reported.  The employee in the mask is shown screaming inches away from children’s faces, the video showed.

Monroe County Sheriff Kevin Crook said in a news release that four of the women each face three counts of felony child abuse.  A fifth woman, he says, faces charges of failure to report abuse by a mandatory reporter and simple assault against a minor — both misdemeanors.

“They can’t use corporal punishment, so we think they were using the mask to try to scare the kids into doing what they were supposed to be doing,” Crook said.

Better Laws, Child Innocence, Coverup, Day Care, Indifference, Law Enforcement

CO Day Care Owner Facing Charges

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.jpg photo of day Care owner facing charges for exceeding limit on children allowed in care
Carla Faith of Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Day care owner charged with Child
Abuse after allegedly hiding 26 children
behind false wall

Colorado Springs, CO  –  Earlier this week, Colorado Springs, Colorado, day care owner Carla Faith, 58, was charged with child abuse and attempt to influence a public servant after 26 toddlers were found behind a false wall at Faith’s day care facility last month.

The day care attached as a secondary building from Faith’s home underwent a welfare check on Nov. 13 when authorities came across two adults and more than 20 children under the age of three.  The search began after a series of complaints that Faith “was housing more children in their care than their licensed allowed,” the City of Colorado Springs said in a statement.

Colorado Springs officer Janel Langdon-Issac discovered the children and two adults in the basement of Faith’s home after hearing children’s music, despite Faith denying of having a lower ground floor, according to ABC affiliate KRDO.

During the search, Officer Jordan Parker bumped into a wall and felt it move, KRDO reported.  When Officer Parker pushed against the wall, authorities discovered a stairwell leading to a finished basement area.

“I spend a minute or two in my car with a tear in my eye because I’m trusting somebody else,” said Ethan Steinberg, an uncle of an enrolled child, in an interview with KRDO. “  It took about an hour until [police] realized where the kids were and that breaks my heart because I don’t know if my niece was down there.”

KRDO also reports that Faith was caught in a similar situation during the late ’90s but in California.

“It’s just not something that’s part of our application process, nor do we really have the authority to require that information,” said Erin Mewhinney, the Division Director Of Early Childhood Care and Learning, in an interview with KRDO.  “We’re working with the state board of human services to allow the department the authority to require child abuse and neglect records from other states of an applicant is coming in from another state.”

Faith’s day care license only permitted her to care for up to six children between the ages of zero and 13, more specifically, only two of these children could be under the age of two, according to an affidavit obtained by KRDO.

“It’s so hard to trust your children with people and we felt we could really trust them,” said parent Jeanette Conde to KRDO.  “ I’m completely betrayed, every parent that I’ve talked to, we all feel completely betrayed.”