Shocking video shows two Georgia CHURCH daycare employees slapping and kicking 3-year-old for hours
CLARKSTON, GEORGIA: Two women from Georgia are wanted for alleged child abuse that was captured on camera at a church daycare on Wednesday, July 6, 2022, according to reports.
According to the Clarkston Police Department, Bernetta Glover and Autumn Coney have been charged with child cruelty in the first degree in an incident that happened at the daycare of the Clarkston First Baptist Academy.
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Krystin Collier recalled the day of the incident and revealed how her 3-year-old son had a swollen jaw when he returned from the daycare and was visibly upset. She told Atlanta CBS affiliate WGCL, “This day, he was very, very emotional, standoffish,” adding, “He was missing a shoe, he was very disheveled.”
The worried mother then obtained CCTV footage of the day and what she saw shocked her. “I’m very disgusted, very disappointed because this is a church daycare,” she said, adding, “I trusted these people with my child.”
The boy was pulled from the daycare at once after the incident, and the footage shared with WSB shows how an adult “appears to pick the child up by the arms and then by his shirt and throw him down.”
Collier said, “One of the teachers picks up my son from one side of her body and slams him to the other side of her body, I guess to get him to settle down.”
According to a police report, the three-year-old's grandmother first noticed something was wrong while picking him up from the daycare since the child was “visibly upset” and “did not seem like himself.” The grandmother wanted to talk to a teacher but was unable to do so, fearing the teacher might fight with her.
Upon noticing bruises on her son’s arm, Collier made a video request. The family said that initially, the church tried to downplay the incident, with one supervisor claiming that the footage did not capture anything “unacceptable,” with which the family strongly disagreed.
According to the police report, the two teachers pushed the three-year-old down onto a classroom mat, pulled his hair, and threw him into a corner, slapping and punching him multiple times. The abuse occurred repeatedly over three hours.
The mother of the child said, “The staff punched my child in the face, grab him by his ponytail, and lead him around like it’s a leash.” “I watched her grab him by his top ponytail, slam him against the wall, punch him in the face,” she said.
The mother continued, “I feel so bad for him, and this is the first time that he’s ever been in daycare,” adding, “This is a church. This is a church, and I trusted the church.”
If you or anyone you know suspects child abuse, you are urged to immediately call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential and the hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.