Two Ohio daycare workers were fired after a video surfaced of them allegedly encouraging the toddlers in their care to fight, according to WBNS-TV.
The video, taken by an employee at Columbus-based Stepping Stones Daycare Center, reportedly shows a 3-year-old boy attacking a girl of the same age. More than one adult, not shown in the video, are heard encouraging the toddlers. The girl suffered scratches, daycare management told the station.
The daycare's management learned of the video on Monday. They later recovered footage from a security camera that apparently shows the same disturbing scene recorded Aug. 3.
Instead of stopping the kids, the adult females, sitting at a nearby table, take out their cellphones and begin recording the fight. At one point one of the women approaches the toddlers, but appears to do so for a closer shot, WBNS reported. The fighting ends when the boy walks away.
Both women were fired Monday and Job and Family Services are now investigating what they call a "disturbing and disappointing" incident.
"We contacted the parents, of course," the daycare's assistant manager Victoria Carter told the station. "Both the teachers that we caught doing this were both terminated, so they no longer work here. We reported it to licensing, so they were aware of everything that was happening as well."
WBNS reached out to the women involved but both declined an on camera interview.
One of the women admitted "she should have stopped the fight, but didn't want to get in the middle of it." She also said she did not pull the 3-year-olds apart because she "didn't want to get injured."
The other woman said she "told the boy to stop fighting."
Disturbingly enough, this is not the first time daycare workers have been accused of running a toddler fight club. Three employees at a Delaware daycare were arrested in August 2012 after a cellphone video allegedly showed them forcing the toddlers to strike each other.
