Five day care workers have been charged with child abuse after a video of them terrifying small children with a scary mask — similar to the one seen in the “Scream” film franchise — went viral.
The incident occurred at Lil’ Blessings Child Care and Learning Center in Hamilton, Mississippi — approximately 170 miles northeast of the state’s capital city of Jackson — where an undated video of a day care worker wearing a mask can be seen terrorizing children who are screaming and crying and even paralyzed with fear.
“Are you being bad? Do I need to take you outside?” the masked day care worker can be heard screaming into the face of a small child as they try to bury their face in their arms on the table. In another moment, the woman in the mask can be seen bending down and shrieking in a crying child’s face as she shakes in fear.
“We are supposed to be cleaning up, monster,” the woman who is filming the video can be heard at one point prompting the woman in the mask who continues stalking the crying and screaming children.
The videos — one filmed in September and another this month — were posted on social media. They show a day care worker at Lil’ Blessings Child Care & Learning Center in Hamilton, an unincorporated community in northeast Mississippi, wearing a Halloween mask similar to the one in the “Scream” movies and yelling at children who didn’t “clean up” or “act good.”
Children can be seen bawling, cowering in fear, and at times running from the masked employee. Another employee gives directions, singling out which children have acted good or bad. The employee in the mask is shown screaming inches away from children’s faces, the video showed.
Monroe County Sheriff Kevin Crook said in a news release that four of the women each face three counts of felony child abuse. A fifth woman, he says, faces charges of failure to report abuse by a mandatory reporter and simple assault against a minor — both misdemeanors. “They can’t use corporal punishment, so we think they were using the mask to try to scare the kids into doing what they were supposed to be doing,” Crook said.
Crook said his office, the county prosecuting attorney and the district attorney met earlier this week with the children’s parents about the case. On Wednesday, at least one set of parents signed felony child abuse complaints, he said, adding a judge issued warrants Thursday for the women.
Crook said all five live in the area. Sierra McCandless, 21; Oci-Anna Kilburn, 28; Jennifer Newman, 25, and Shyenne Shelton, 28, are accused of three counts of felony child abuse, the sheriff’s statement said. Another woman, Traci Hutson, 44, faces charges of failure to report abuse by a mandatory reporter and simple assault against a minor — both misdemeanors, he added.
At a hearing, bond was set at $20,000 each for McCandless and Kilburn and $15,000 each for Newman and Shelton. Because she faces misdemeanor charges, Hutson was not required to post bond. It was not immediately known if any of those facing charges have attorneys who could speak on their behalf.
