Oci-Anna Elise Kilburn Mississippi daycare worker fired screaming at children in Halloween mask at Hamilton facility, Lil' Blessing Childcare. Images via social media.
Oci-Anna Elise Kilburn Mississippi daycare worker fired screaming at children in Halloween mask at Hamilton facility, Lil’ Blessing Childcare. Images via social media.
Oci-Anna Elise Kilburn, Mississippi daycare worker fired over screaming at kids in Halloween mask video. Former employee at Hamilton facility, Lil’ Blessing Childcare issues public apology.
A Mississippi daycare worker has issued a public apology after she was fired following the release of viral video showing her wearing a Halloween mask, screaming at children in a bid ‘to scare’ misbehaving toddlers.
The Lil’ Blessing Childcare worker in Hamilton, who referred to herself as CeeCee, spoke out in an emotional 19-minute Facebook video following the release of footage earlier this week showing her scare children who were ‘bad’ for not cleaning up.
Four employees at the facility were fired following the incident,according to WTVA.
In one of the videos, the daycare worker since outed as Oci-Anna Elise Kilburn on social media is seen grabbing children who were running away in terror and getting inches away from their faces.
‘It wasn’t meant to harm anybody and it wasn’t ill-intentioned,’ said Kilburn in an apology video she posted on a third person account on Facebook. ‘The teachers asked me if I would do it or if they could use [the mask] to get their class to listen or clean up . . . I’m not a child abuser.’
Kilburn who had worked at the daycare center for almost four years, said all the teachers knew her plan, while the school’s owner did not.
‘I did not go in there at my own discretion. As in, I didn’t go in there with intentions to literally traumatize those children,’ the former childcare worker stated, adding that the students either laughed, cried or stared blankly at her.
‘I expected them to react the way they reacted when I did it,’ Kilburn said.
The former employee and herself a parent of a young child said the children she taught ‘were her life’ and will never step foot in a daycare facility again.
The ‘stunt gone wrong’ began after Kilburn purchased the mask from Dollar General in attempt to scare her coworker.
‘Long story short, I bought the masks to scare her eventually and they were used inappropriately,’ Kilburn said.
‘But what you all didn’t see was after I had left the room, I took it off and I went back into the classroom… and I said “CeeCee got the monster. It’s not coming back.” And they would hug me. I known those kids their whole life.’
Throughout Kilburn’s 19-minute apology video she explained the toddlers reacted emotionally because ‘they are children.’
‘I do want to say an example, I know it seem the way that it does, but it doesn’t have to be that way,’ Kilburn explained.
Kilburn didn’t post the video on her personal social media account (since removed) but through a third-party user named Richard McCandless.
The video was reposted by Ashley Wood, whose son attended the day care. Wood stood up for CeeCee and asked the public to stop with the slandering and death threats.
‘There will be consequences but it’s not our place to judge anyone or even make someone feel so alone and down,’ Wood wrote on Facebook. ‘[It] isn’t right. I don’t wish cece no bad on her. Was it wrong YES. I’m not saying it’s not and she knows that’s – and is what she is trying to get thru to everyone she is truly sorry.’
Another woman who has a child in a Mississippi daycare reposted footage of Kilburn scaring toddlers on Facebook after it was taken down.
Workers at the Lil’ Blessings Childcare and Learning Center in Mississippi were recorded traumatizing children with a Halloween mask pic.twitter.com/atzIwOzMG1
Kelsey Tackett shared the video online while calling for the daycare to be shutdown according to the dailymail.
‘Now Lil’ Blessings – IF THIS HAD OF BEEN. MY CHILD; MIGHT AS WELL LOCK ME UP!!! THIS IS UNCALLED FOR!!!! I feel so bad for those babies & those mamas who will have to comfort their children while they try to sleep tonight & the nights to come,’ Tackett wrote.
‘Not mention having to find somewhere new for their child to go- excuse my language but I BE DANG*****!! This has made me S I C K !!!’
The video of CeeCee terrorizing the children was widely shared online as one woman in the background was instructing the masked teacher to avoid certain toddlers who have ‘been good’ by saying ‘don’t get her.’
Video shows the worker alternatively addressing children who had supposedly being ‘bad’ while wearing the Halloween mask, with the confused children sobbing and attempting to get away, before screaming in fear.
Jennifer Kayla Newman, a daycare worker who claims to have filmed the videos, shared a long response on Facebook Thursday, posting that she had recorded the incidents not because she thought it was funny, but because she was trying to show parents her coworkers’ actions.
‘A couple of weeks ago some girls at the daycare bought Halloween masks to scare the kids, they did it and I never got it on video,’ she said.
The daycare worker went on to claim that her idea to record came from previous ‘slaps on the wrist’ that were given to her coworkers over issues she brought up to the owners without proof.
The Mississippi State Department of Health and the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office are investigating the ordeal and working with the county prosecutor to see if there are any possible criminal charges that can be filed, police stated in a release.
Speaking to the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal daycare owner, Sheila Sanders who has owned the facility for over 20 years said one of the videos was filmed last month, while a more recent video was filmed on Tuesday.
‘I contacted my licensure, and she has gotten involved,’ Sanders told the outlet. ‘The people that did those acts are no longer with us. They were fired. I wasn’t here at the time and wasn’t aware they were doing that. I don’t condone that and never have. I just want to say it’s been taken care of.’
