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Subscribe to RSSDay care workers in Philadelphia are accused of staging and recording toddlers fighting. WCAU's Claudia Rivero reports.
Authorities have suspended a Delaware day care's license after three employees there allegedly encouraged a pair of toddlers to fight one another.
Cell phone video taken in March appears to show two three-year-olds fighting the Hands of Our Future Daycare in Dover, Del., while three female workers cheer them on, according to Dover Police.
Several other children were roaming around in the room at the time, Delaware Online reported.
For more visit NBCPhiladelphia.com.
CBS Philadelphia reported that in the video, police say one child can be heard crying and yelling, "He’s pinching me," while a day care worker responds, "No pinching, only punching."
On Monday, police arrested Tiana Harris, 19, of Dover; Estefania Myers, 21, of Felton; and Lisa Parker, 47, of Dover. All three women face two counts each of second-degree assault and reckless endangerment as well as nine counts of endangering the welfare of a child and one count each of conspiracy.
“Clearly one of the children is crying and does not want to continue on, and he is pushed back into the fray by one of the adults,” Dover Police Captain Tim Stump told CBS.
According to Delaware Online, police said Harris and Myers were “shown and heard laughing and encouraging the altercation."
The incident came to light when a Dover police officer saw the video over the weekend during an unrelated investigation and alerted detectives.
The city business license for Hands of Our Future was suspended pending a hearing, police said.
“It’s shocking, disturbing and infuriating to watch this video that shows the two children whaling on each other,” Stump told Delaware Online. “These are our most precious cargo and to have adults responsible for caring for their well-being to have them behave as such is sickening.”
Stump added that it is unclear whether other children were involved.
Parent Cristyl Slack, who said she has known Myers since childhood, told CBS her 4-year-old daughter was at the day care on the day of the fight. She said she was angry the allegations were just coming out now, months later.
“I feel if my daughter is around anything, I should have known that day,” Slack said.
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Leave a Comment:
MMA preschool?
Cartman's crack baby fight club?
Of course, this is Joe Biden's home state.
Very low bred life forms.
Maybe that's why they are trying to teach them to fight.
Yes, us humans aren't very evolved.
We should aspire to live happily together like whales and dolphins.
Hands of Our Future?
Yeah, it sounds like it. Maybe this is one of the reasons we have some of the problems we do in the schools and on the streets today. Our governments.... city, state, and federal.... are in such a hurry to dole out grant money to minorities for day care that they don't check qualification and they don't have any funds for oversight to follow up on the quality of care the children receive.
And before you people start on how the parents should be checking on the quality of the care, the minorities who utilize these minority funded day cares are parents, usually single parents, who are working and doing their best to get off welfare roles or to supplement their social services so they can give some type of quality to the lives of their children and don't have the resources to keep tabs on day care services "approved and certified" by their city.
On a topic, totally non-related, we have political gibberish.
I find it totally related, and I submit for your reflection the minority day care worker who was given a grant in Texas last year without being fully vetted, who went out and left her little charges sleeping, with a pot of grease on the stove while she shopped at Target, it caught fire and several of them died.
She ran off back to her home country, eventually came back, it was discovered she lied on her application about her background.... it has all been hushed up since.
Article doesn't say the center was funded with grant monies. Just saying.
Well at least they have some rules.
Yep, and pinching hurts like a b!tch.
In a recent meeting with a mediator where I work I was told that I should have argued (fought) with the person I was there with instead of repeatedly telling her our conversation was done and would she please leave my work space. I won't be trying the mediator method again.
This is not boys town,this is pre-k, and you ladies are surely no Father Flanagan!
Learn some compassion, please! Very sad, you ladies have cheapened my day!
Honestly, do you think that you are getting quality workers for $ 7.25/hr in a day are setting? Yes, there are workers that care and are good with children, but they are not the norm in these large centers.
How about better paying jobs for one parent so the other can stay home and care for their own children? Or maybe stop having children if you can't care for them yourself. Wouldn't that be radical?
And non-answer comments like yours to problems for minority and low income parents are asinine. The viable solution lies in vetting the applicants for the grant money for these day cares in a responsible manner and not doling it out just because of the color of their skin or their last name.
You have that RIGHT! I owned a childcare center for years, and I the highest I could EVER pay, was $12.50 an hour...and I went through some really BAD teachers...it's not a job that pays well, ever.
That would be nice.
Utopian thoughts! Facts are, children do better in school, when they attend a quality child care center!
Numerous studies have shown that children benefit significantly by spending time in daycare (while their moms work). Some of the benefits that have been cited include enhanced vocabulary (compared to kids who have not spent significant time in a group childcare setting), an improved and better developed immune system, and better socialization skills.
http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/daycare-benefits-children
This was NOT a quality childcare center!
Jo-An-4354969
Unfortunately, even most schools are just childcare centers. Not much education being done.
Jo-An-4354969,
12.50 an hour in my area would be considered awesome pay but unfortunately the daycare providers in my area can't pay that. However, there are a lot of very competent daycare providers in this area such as the one that my daughter attends. I checked their credentials and background with a fine toothed comb before I signed her up there. What those women did is inexcusable and they should be punished to the fullest extent of the law! If anything like that happened where my child went they should pray that the law got them before I did!
Who has ultimate oversite for daycare centers? I live in Cambridge, Mass., and we have one on our street. Every day, about 15 0r 20 pre-K kids and several adult supervisors walk down the sidewalk to go on outings. One day, I heard an adult use obscenities when speaking to a toddler. I called the school, described the incident, and gave them my address. Since then, the kids and their adult chaperones continue to come down the sidewalk as usual, but on the OTHER side of the street. The adult supervisor may have been reprimanded, but they stay clear of our house "just in case".
Usually they are county licensed...So you should have called the county Dept of Health, and made a formal complaint.
One look at those lovely ladies and I would have turned around and left.
But as a side note I wonder which child won.
This brings me back to my days at daycare where we too were taught to fight and kick each other
OMG I am speechless.
If ever an industry cries for regulation and oversight, it's childcare!! The US of A lags far behind many other countries in this area. It is somewhere around 26th place, or so.
If I had to choose whether to send my kids to one of these awful places, I believe I would find a way to work from home. Granted, not everyone has that opportunity, which is why the oversight would be so helpful. Anyone off the streets can go into one of these day care centers and with little effort, obtain a job.
It is regulated...
Not true. Background checks are done, and they must complete basic training, before starting, and have ongoing annual training....
The problem is lack of funding....
Childcare is not a money making profession...
Jo-An-4354969
Varies by state. Also varies by type of daycare... some are nothing more than baby sitting services. some do attempt to operate as a preschool. Again depending on the state and classifications there are different rules/regulations.
Private day care requires a license but is operated as a for profit business. Few due it out of the kindness of their hearts. Some daycare facilities even use their own family members to count towards required staff. That has resulted in some serious situations.
hey hey,your not suppose to talk about fight club.
When I was in grade school in the 1960s I was bullied by a much larger, stronger boy. When I went to the guidance counsellor, he got the two of us together and told us he'd take us to the gym for a bare-knuckled fight and if I couldn't beat the bully into submission, I'd just have to put up with any treatment he chose to give me. I'd LOVE to send that counsellor to JAIL.
I'm just happy this wasn't in Florida! (for a change)
One of the most important things you can EVER learn is how to take a punch/deal with pain. C'mon, it isn't like the kids were armed with spike bats.
If that's what you think the MOST important thing one can learn, I wonder just how far you have got yourself buddy.
Derek... you've got to be kidding me. I don't think you're trolling, your comment sounds like you think this is the truth. Sure, some times fist fights happen between kids, and it's a natural human experience that most males will go though at least once in life.
However two toddlers being forced into physical combat by their caregivers for the caregivers' entertainment is a bit different than two high schoolers willingly going to blows over the affection of Mary Jane Rottencrotch.
Sickening. I understand that daycare doesn't pay well, but low pay does not mean teachers get to abuse the children! I hope these women spend some time in jail, and when they get out, I hope they are never allowed to work with children again.
They should have sent the kids to Gladiator school. LMAO
Seriously, put the three criminals in jail, and let them fight to the death. The crucify the winner.
It the new Pre-K(ill) This is the result of paying generations of teenage miscreants to birth babies without ever demanding they have on iota of education, clean criminal records, or ability to actually provide a nurturing environment for their children. These turds were most likely raised by single mothers who likewise had no education, no job, and no ability to raise THEM, and see it where it has gotten them. Wash, rinse , repeat.....
Why does the reporter sound like Mira Sorvino from "Michelle and Romy's" movie?
This literally made me sick to my stomach reading it. It breaks my heart to know that there are adults out there that treat innocent children like this. I hope they get the worst punishment possible!! The 47 year old is what really gets me, I wonder if she would like someone doing that to her children or grandchildren! Sick People!
We all have our crosses to bear.Us whites,yeah we have the Ftards who shoot up the place.Others-this.PS I would totally pay for tickets to see them horsewhipped
This is absolutely disgusting. Why didn't the daycare inform the parents of this behavior long before these people were arrested. They should all be jailed for this.
Luke 17:2 Holy Bible. It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin.
S every parent that teaches their child to HATE "fags" is a sinner??
It may come to light these day care workers were big fans of The Hunger Games book and movie.