A Florida daycare worker was arrested after video footage showed her allegedly abusing toddlers, officials said on June 6.
An officer described the footage to the local news station.
“There was shaking (and) a couple of kids being smacked during nap time,” Keith Walker of the Ormond Beach Police Department told the station. “Some of the kids, she palmed the back of their heads with her hands and pushed them face forward in their cots.”
One video appeared to show her allegedly hitting a child in the face.
“We found over 30 incidents that could be considered child abuse to at least four different children,” Walker added.
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A manager at Dream City Academy became suspicious about how she treated the children under her care, saying they heard toddlers crying.
Weitz was hired as a full-time employee at the daycare just days before the abuse allegedly occurred, WFTV reported. She passed background checks, police said.
Police said she told officials that she felt sick and never should have gone to work that day. She also agreed that she was “overreacting” and “being too rough,” WESH reported.
She allegedly told police: “I should never have been that rough.”
“It’s very disturbing to drop off your child in the care of somebody else, to think that they are going to be protected,” Walker told WESH.
The suspect is slated to appear in court on Tuesday, June 11.
Another Incident in Missouri
In March, charges were filed against two Missouri daycare center workers after surveillance video showing a 3-year-old girl being thrown against a cabinet went viral, The Associated Press reported.The woman accused of throwing the girl, 27-year-old Wilma Brown, was charged with felony child abuse on Thursday in St. Louis County. Relatives said the girl sustained a head gash that required seven stitches during the incident on Feb. 1 at Brighter Day Care and Preschool.
The girl’s family said they were initially told the girl fell, but five days later watched surveillance video with the center’s director that showed a worker throwing the child into a cabinet.
A warrant has been issued for Brown’s arrest. Brown doesn’t have a publicly listed telephone number and couldn’t be reached for comment by The Associated Press.
Prosecutors also charged 22-year-old Ariana Silver for a separate incident on Feb. 27 that was also allegedly captured by surveillance video. Charging documents allege Silver squeezed a 4-year-old girl’s arm and punctured her skin, and then carried the girl by her foot.
