Ohio daycare workers arrested after 5-year-old girl is bullied, dragged, dangled by the ankle on their watch by older students
COLUMBUS, OHIO: Two Ohio daycare workers were arrested after they did nothing to prevent the bullying and physical assault of a 5-year-old boy who was in their care.
Emma Dietrich, 31, and Joshua Tennant, 27, were charged Tuesday with child endangerment after a video surfaced showing the victim getting bullied by older students in the Worthington Learning Center on August 13.
The video, which was viewed by the detectives with the Columbus Division of Police, showed the accused employees sitting at a table near the scene where a 5-year-old female student was brought into the room by an older student.
A group of students—all older than the victim— then started "grabbing, pulling, dragging, swinging, and just 'bullying'" the girl, according to the police report. At one point, the little girl tried to flee the bullies but they grabbed her and held her down.
Throughout her ordeal, the 5-year-old kept her eyes closed and was visibly frightened as she continued to endure their assaults. She eventually curled up in a fetal position as the group continued to bully her.
While the assault was going on, the two accused workers chose not to intervene and continued to observe the actions of the bullies from a safe distance. Toward the end of the video, Tennant was seen picking up the 5-year-old girl by her ankles and carrying her upside down to place her on the rug.
Dietrich was accused of creating "a substantial risk to the safety by violating a duty of care and protection," according to documents from Franklin County Municipal Court. The pair were arrested after admitting they refused to stop the attack as a twisted form of discipline, New York Post reported.
Worthington Learning Center owner Lisa Rowe told 10TV that she was “heartbroken” over the incident and immediately fired the two workers after she saw the video. She said child services alerted her to the incident first.
Rowe added that her employees are subjected to extensive training to make sure that such incidents do not occur and that there was “zero tolerance” for such behavior.
The police said that daycare center was fully cooperating with the authorities in the investigation, adding they chose to make the case public to show the "severity" of what the victim endured at the center.