Five Mississippi daycare workers who donned a GhostFace mask from the horror movie Scream and appeared to taunt the children in their care have been charged with child abuse.
Footage shared online showed staff at the Lil’ Blessings Child Care and Learning Center in Hamilton, sneaking up on and screaming at the young children, who understandably were frightened to the extent that they started crying and hiding from their tormentors.
"Are you being bad? Do I need to take you outside?" a masked worker is heard screaming into one young child's face as they bury their face in their arms on the table.
In a different part of the footage, a woman wearing the mask bends down and shrieks in the face of a crying child as she trembles in fear.
"We are supposed to be cleaning up, monster," the woman recording the video is heard saying at one point as another worker in a mask continues screaming at distressed children.
Sierra McCandless, Oci-Anna Kilburn, Jennifer Newman, and Shyenne Mills were each charged with three counts of felony child abuse, the Monroe County Sheriff's Office confirmed in a Facebook post on Thursday.
All four workers are in their 20s. Traci Hutson was charged with failure to report abuse by a mandatory reporter and simple assault.
All five of the daycare employees were arrested on Wednesday and booked into Monroe County Jail, the sheriff's office stated. The four who were charged with felonies first appeared in court on Thursday morning and bond was set at $20,000 for McCandless and Kilburn and $15,000 for Newman and Mills, per the sheriff's office.
Monroe County Sheriff Kevin Crook said in a statement about the incident: "On Monday October 17, 2022 the Monroe County Sheriff's Office, the County Prosecuting Attorney, and the District Attorney met with the parents of the children involved in the incident at Lil' Blessings Child Care and Learning Center and informed them of the possible criminal charges the law would allow them to pursue.
"Parents were also given an opportunity to share information they had gathered with MCSO Investigators."
