Local

Two child care employees fired over disturbing Snapchat video

By Elsa Gillis
By Elsa Gillis

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A series of Snapchats captured disturbing scenes inside a child care network center on Sharon Amity Road.

Some of the videos, capturing workers verbally ridiculing children, are so graphic they can’t be shown and parents Channel 9 spoke with were shocked to hear about them.

“I thought it was a good day care until now. You never know what's going on behind closed doors,” parent Donnell Davis said.

Tangie Bostic told Channel 9 that after the video surfaced, her granddaughter won't be going back.

“It's terrible, it’s terrible. They shouldn't be able to do stuff like that to kids,” Bostic said.

Channel 9 took those concerns to a day care manager.

“We are so terribly saddened that the incident happened with that employee. They are no longer employed here,” Okeyma Wright said.

Childcare Network said it screens all employees and that the one worker in the video exercised poor judgment.

The worker and the teacher in the room with her have been terminated.

“We have been working with authorities. That employee will never be working in early child care ever again,” Wright said.

Parents were given letters explaining the incident Tuesday, and staff spoke with parents one-on-one.

“We've been here and never had issues so I wasn't expecting anything like that, but they handled it really good,” Sila Vlachou said.

In an email statement Childcare Network's Chief Operating Officer, Dana Ramsey, said:

"We were shocked and saddened last evening when we were made aware of a video that had been sent to a local reporter, reflecting an employee who worked as a teacher/substitute/floater at our school attempting to ridicule a child. 

It was heartbreaking to all of us here. We have many questions and we will be working in the days ahead to find answers. We screen all of our employees, and work to establish a culture of love and support for our children and families. 

We are very protective of the safety and well being of our children and are saddened to think that someone that had been on our team would ever address or handle a child in this manner. We apologize to our families and the community for the actions of this staff member. 

Despite all that we do to prevent this type of thing from happening, this person used extremely poor judgment.  She will not work for us again. 

We have reported this and it will be investigated by the state, and if found responsible, this person and the teacher who was in the room with her will not work in any childcare environment ever again.

We have been serving families in the Charlotte area for more than 18 years. We have worked hard to gain five star ratings and the trust of our parents. We work to hire highly qualified staff and have a long term management team that is quality focused. We have hundreds of great, educated, and loving teachers in the Charlotte area, who have dedicated their careers to improving the lives of children and families. 

The wrong doing of this employee will put a scar on our hearts. Our staff, our school and our company are not represented by the choices that she made that day. We are a family of people that care, and we will rise above this together and we will move on to be our best."

Read more top trending stories on wsoctv.com:

Cox Media Group

0

Most Read