Daycare Workers Arrested for Running Fight Ring Involving 3-Year-Olds
Two teachers at a daycare center in Newbury, South Carolina have been charged with encouraging children to fight and failing to intervene. Serena Caldwell, 56, and Ericka Jones, 27, allegedly directed three and four-year-olds in their care to slap, pull, and kick each other.
The fights were captured on camera, and the daycare owner promptly fired Caldwell and Jones after receiving a complaint from other staff members and reviewing the security footage.
Sheriff Lee Foster revealed that 14 children between the ages of three and four were involved. He explained that the accused teachers often informed a child that the daycare center had promoted someone else, provoking clashes between the children. Caldwell and Jones reportedly allowed the violence to continue without intervening.
In an interview with news site WLTX, Sheriff Foster stated, “It was a situation where they were participating in it by encouraging the kids, and they kind of looked at it as something maybe almost equivalent to a sporting event where they were kind of trying to motivate the kids into participating in that.”
The sheriff expressed his disbelief at the daycare workers’ behavior, saying, “I have no idea what the two daycare workers were thinking of – that was just abhorrent behavior. I just can’t imagine why you would do this.”
One parent of a victim shared with local media that their child was instructed to hit another child and then told to do it again.
Both the police and parents of the victims emphasized that the fight ring was not a systematic issue at the daycare center and that only the two “rogue employees” were responsible for the incident.
