Too strange to make up: Toddler Fight Club

[SCRawl]

Toddler fight club: Delaware daycare workers arrested after allegedly encouraging children to punch each other

National Post Staff | Aug 21, 2012 11:34 PM ET | Last Updated: Aug 21, 2012 11:44 PM ET

All three workers are charged with felony assault and conspiracy, as well as several misdemeanor counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

Three daycare workers in Delaware have been arrested for allegedly encouraging toddlers to fight each other.

Police said they were shocked when they came across a video that recorded a fight between two three-year-olds while investigating another matter.

“It was a difficult video to watch,” Dover Police Captain Tim Stump told FoxNews.com.

He told the local NBC station that the kid “were just whaling on each other. I mean punching, slapping, pinching, throwing each other into tables.

“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.”

Capt. Stump said it was clear the adults were “egging” the children on.

In the video, one child is heard yelling, “He’s pinching me.” A daycare worker allegedly responded, “No pinching, only punching.”

Maybe there’s more times that it happened — and it’s not on video and the parents don’t know

On Monday, Delaware police arrested Tiana Harris, 19, Estefania Myers, 21, and Lisa Parker, 47, on charges of endangering the welfare of a child, reckless endangering and conspiracy. They are out on bail.

They worked at the Hands of Our Future Day Care in Dover, which has now been shut and its licence suspended. They were arrested after police discovered a cellphone video taken by one of the workers in March showing employees watching, and encouraging two three-year-olds to fight.

Police said they had found only one video but at least one parent with a child at the centre said she feared it could have happened before.

“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,” Melissa McMullen told a CBS station in Delaware.

I had my reasons for not putting my kids into daycare. Strangely enough, none of those reasons had anything to do with the rules of Fight Club. Still, since I just talked about it, I suppose I just broke the first two rules of Fight Club...

[Flagg]

Daycares are hellholes. Even the good ones. I know this from personal experience. It turns out that minimum wage earners probably shouldn't be in charge of looking after your kids?

[Skywalker_T-65]

My aunt works at a daycare run by her mom...it isn't that bad of a place really. But I expect its in the minority, and probably helps that its a small family run place, not a big one.

[Korgeta]

Rugrats turn vicious

Daycare centres from my experince are ok, no abuse I noticed but neglect can occur espacilly if staff are underpaid or on placement and become complecent. And quite frankly the content of the article dosen't sound that shocking, it sounds more like a gradual buildup to child abuse.

[Zixinus]

What I am shocked at most, is the age of one of the daycare workers: a 47 year old women either allowing it or even participating in it happening just hits a nerve. That young little shits got to this point is not all that surprising.

[D.Turtle]

Daycares are hellholes. Even the good ones. I know this from personal experience. It turns out that minimum wage earners probably shouldn't be in charge of looking after your kids?

Or maybe you shoud pay people more than minimum wage in order to look after your kids?

[Simon_Jester]

Certainly more than the US minimum wage, if you want the job done well.

The US minimum wage being low has two effects. One, many people who are on it have trouble making ends meet- keeping on top of food and housing expenses is difficult. If medical or childcare responsibilities get thrown in it doesn't take long before you have one person working 60 or 80-hour weeks at those low wages.

The other effect is that almost anyone who's got a shot of getting a better job will try to. You can find some very good people who do jobs very well for 20$ an hour. They're probably a lot better at that job than the average person would be, even with training. Because that's enough to live on- it won't leave all motivated people looking for more money. If it's a job that motivates you and you have experience at, you can stick to it.

It's harder to find people who are very good at their jobs on 10$ an hour, let alone 7.25$. It still happens, but more depends on luck for that. No one is going to stay in a minimum wage job their whole life if they can possibly help it, so they don't get experienced at it, and if they're good they find something else to do.

[Saxtonite]

My aunt works at a daycare run by her mom...it isn't that bad of a place really. But I expect its in the minority, and probably helps that its a small family run place, not a big one.

In my case, former girlfriend and it's her grandmother. Ditto given it's small and family-run and I believe it's mainly people the grandmother knows from social circles.

[weemadando]

In Australia childcare is regulated to hell and back. There are still some shoddy places, but most are run pretty damn well.

And here's a laugh - I'm a public servant and I hadn't even heard of ACECQA (catchy, no?) who are the federal industry regulators. Damn big government getting in the way of child abuse.