Five workers at Lil’ Blessings Child Care and Learning Center in Mississippi were said to be involved in an attempt to “scare” children into submission, a whistleblower disclosed in a Facebook post.
The employees—Sierra McCandless, Oci-Anna Kilburn, Jennifer Newman, and Shyenne Shelton—were charged with three counts each of felony child abuse according to reports.
Another employee, Traci Hutson was charged with failure to report abuse and simple assault against a minor, which are misdemeanor charges.
Hutson faces misdemeanor charges of failure to report abuse and simple assault against a minor.
The daycare’s owner, Sheila Sanders, told media outlets that she had “fired those involved” after hearing what had happened at her facility. She is not facing any charges.
“I don’t condone that and never have,” she told the reporters.
Sanders also disclosed that a similar incident happened in September, but she was not aware of it until the video of the masked workers scaring children appeared on social media.
One of the workers, CeeCee claimed that the act was not “ill-intentioned.”
“It wasn’t meant to harm anybody and it wasn’t ill-intentioned,” she said in a video shared on Facebook.
“The teachers asked me if I would do it or if they could use [the mask] to get their class to listen or clean up. I’m not a child abuser,” she continued.
She added that she had made the plan to scare the children so that they would “behave,” but did not disclose her plans to Sanders.
“I was in complete shock of what I witnessed,” Katelyn Johnson, a parent told a national news outlet.
“Whether they had a mask on or a mask off, their behavior was unacceptable. My blood pressure was raised. It broke my heart for my child. I was angry.”
She said that her 2-year-old son is still showing signs of trauma and has difficulty sleeping through the night.
“I hope you’re enjoying jail,” she announced during her interview. “And I hope you realize what you’ve done is serious. And it’s not a joke. And it’s nothing to laugh at.”
Parent Alyssa Hayes told reporters of the effect on her daughter, “I want them to see the terror on her face because that is what I see every night.”
“Just the attention that’s ... been given to this at this point,“ Sheriff Kevin Crook told reporters, ”might keep something like this from happening—or people to look into what’s going on, you know, in their daycare facilities.”
The childcare workers are facing felonies and appeared in court on Oct. 20 where they each received their bond notices from a judge.
McCandless and Kilburn each received $20,000 bonds. Newman and Shelton each received $15,000 bonds.
