Daycare workers at Columbus, Ohio, Worthington Learning Center, Emma Dietrich & Joshua Tennant charged w/ child endangerment after failing to stop abuse of 5 year old child.
Two daycare workers in Ohio have been arrested after video showed them doing nothing to protect a ‘frightened’ 5-year-old girl as older children bullied and assaulted her, police said.
Video footage obtained by detectives in Columbus showed Joshua Tennant, 27, and Emma Dietrich, 31, making no attempt to stop several kids from taunting the child at the Worthington Learning Center on Aug. 13, police said.
The pair upon their arrest were on Tuesday charged with misdemeanor counts of child endangerment. Court documents cited by WCMH revealed the Columbus employees admitting having refused to stop the attack as a form of discipline. Define discipline?
‘In the video, the older students are grabbing, pulling, dragging, swinging and just ‘bullying’ [the girl],’ police said in an incident report posted on Facebook. ‘She appears frightened and keeps her eyes closed or covered and attempts to curl up into a fetal position.’
Lapse of standards revealed in recent daycare inspection
Distressing video is said to have shown the girl trying to get away from the older students, only to be held down. As the bullying continued, police said Dietrich and Tennant ‘continually’ sat at a table nearby and took no steps to stop the abuse.
Later in the footage, Tennant picked up the 5-year-old girl by her right ankle and left leg and carried her upside down, placing her back on a rug near her tormentors, police said.
The owner of the day care center said she was ‘heartbroken’ and immediately fired Dietrich and Tennant after seeing the footage, WBNS reported. The video was sent to child welfare investigators.
Of disconcert a recent inspection of the ‘licensed’ daycare facility in June revealed several issues being found, including safety and child abuse training not having been met WCMH reported.
Several parents have since claimed Tennant as having been ‘wonderful’ with their children and saying that they never suspected any problems at the family-operated facility. The incident has since led to a number of parents planning to remove their children following the arrests.
