HAMILTON, Miss. (AP) — State regulators are investigating after a video showing four daycare employees scaring children at a facility in an unincorporated community in northeastern Mississippi went viral on the internet. social networks.
Videos on Facebook show a daycare worker at the Lil’ Blessings Child Care and Learning Center in Hamilton wearing a Halloween mask and yelling at children who didn’t “clean up” or “behave themselves.”
Children can be seen and heard crying and sometimes running away from the employee wearing the mask while another employee gives instructions on which children acted right or wrong. At times, the employee in the mask is shown screaming inches from the children’s faces.
Sheila Sanders, who has owned the business for the past 20 years, said she was unaware of the videos as of Wednesday afternoon, the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reported.
Sanders said a video was shot in September and another on Tuesday. “No one came to tell me what happened in September,” he said.
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The behavior displayed by his former employees in the video, he said, is not tolerated.
“I reached out to my license and she got involved,” Sanders said. “The people who did those acts are no longer with us. They got fired. I wasn’t here at the time and didn’t know they were doing that. I don’t condone that and never have. I just want to say that it has been taken care of.”
The Mississippi State Department of Health and the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office are investigating. Liz Sharlot, director of communications for the state health department, confirmed the investigation.
On Thursday morning, parents reacted to the videos as they dropped off their children for child care, expressing their support for the facility.
“I know 100% that Ms. Sheila, the owner and director, was not aware of this situation that was going on and as soon as she found out, all parties were immediately canceled,” said Kimberly Smith, whose son can be see in one of the videos “The witch hunt that has been going on for her and the others who are still here really needs to stop. Was the situation that happened horrible? Absolutely. But if this nursery is closed and others who are still here are mistreated, absolutely not.”
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