After alarming videos of childcare providers reportedly terrifying young children with a Scream mask surfaced online, a Mississippi daycare is now the subject of an inquiry.
The Monroe County Sheriff’s Department reported that Sierra McCandless, 21, Oci-Anna Kilburn, 28, Jennifer Newman, 25, and Sheyenne Mills, 28, have all been charged with three counts of felony child abuse, while Traci Hutson, 44, has been charged with failing to report abuse by a mandatory reporter and simple assault.
According to several sources, the five suspects were detained on Thursday in connection with three videos that went viral showing the staff members reportedly using the mask to scare a group of small children left in their care at the Lil’ Blessings Child Care & Learning Center in Hamilton, Miss.
Another video appears to show another employee donning the mask and frightening children as they try to eat lunch.
The recordings, which the Associated Press claims were shot in September and October of this year, supposedly feature the cries and screams of numerous youngsters.
Daycare owner Sheila Sanders told the Monroe Journal that she was not made aware of the disturbing videos until this week’s Wednesday afternoon.
The sheriff’s office reports that the bonds for McCandless, Kilburn, and Newman are each $20,000, while the bonds for Mills and Newman are each $15,000. The amount of Hutson’s bail was kept secret.
On Thursday, it was impossible to find out who the suspects’ attorneys were, and it was unknown whether any of the ladies had pleaded guilty or not to the allegations.
