DOVER, Delaware (WTVR) – Police in Delaware are investigating after daycare workers allegedly forced toddlers to fight – and recorded it on their cell phones.
Authorities, who have not released the video of the March incident, arrested three workers after they allegedly made the 3 year olds under their care at the Hands of Our Future daycare fight.
WBOC-TV's Tony Hurst reportsTianna Harris, 19, Estefania Myers, 21, and Lisa Parker, 47, face multiple charges after a police investigation turned up video of the March incident.
Dover Police Captain Tim Stump said the women could clearly be heard in the video.
Estefania Myers, 21, Tianna Harris, 19, and Lisa Parker, 47, face multiple charges after a police investigation found cell phone video of the March incident.
"Just to give you the tone of what the video was about, one child starts screaming because the other child is pinching him and one of the adults yells, 'no pinching, only punching,'" said Stump. “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.”
Stump said the video shows the workers knew exactly what was going on. He said he watched the video and that it stirred a deep range of emotions for him.
Parents also had strong reaction to the allegations after a special meeting at the police station Monday.
News of the video was too much for Cyrystal Slack since her child was in class with the two children being egged on to fight.
"The two kids were fighting and nobody stepped in as an adult to break the fight up?" Slack told WBOC-TV. “That pissed me off just because I feel if my daughter is around anything I should have known that day,” Slack told KYW-TV.
Slack also said she grew up with Myers and cannot imagine her standing by and doing nothing, much less prompting the tykes to put up their dukes.
Other parents feared the children might have been forced to fight more than the once.
"I'm just worried that it could have been my son… Maybe there's more times that it happened -- and it's not on video and the parents don't know…," said parent Melissa McMullen.
Amy Bickling said she finds the allegations hard to believe because she never noticed anything out of the ordinary at the daycare.
"I've never seen any of the teachers do anything that was negative towards the children and my son has never come home with any bumps or bruises," said Amy Bickling, another daycare parent. "They asked me that today and I just don't know what to think."
The suspects are out on bail and the daycare's license has been suspended.
