A female daycare worker has been fired from a Mississippi facility after video surfaced of her scaring the daylights out of ‘misbehaving’ toddlers with a frightening Halloween mask.
As reported by the UK’s Daily Mail, the worker, who identified herself online as CeeCee, was let go from the Lil’ Blessing Childcare in Hamilton after the video became public. She responded to the firing in “an emotional 19-minute Facebook video following the release of footage showing her scare children who were ‘bad’ for not cleaning up,” the outlet noted.
In one video that surfaced earlier this week, the childcare worker is seen chasing terrified children and getting inches from their faces as they screamed in terror.
“It wasn’t meant to harm anybody and it wasn’t ill-intentioned,” CeeCee explained 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.”
CeeCee said that she had been at the center for about four years since she was 16 years old. She said that all of the teachers knew about the stunt but the owner of the daycare 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,” she said, adding that kids either laughed, stared blankly at her or cried. “I expected them to react the way they reacted when I did it.”
She said the kids she was taking care of were “her life,” but she has no plans ever to step foot in a daycare center again.
She added that she initially bought the mask at a local store to scare a co-worker. “Long story short, I bought the masks to scare her eventually and they were used inappropriately,” she 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,” she added.
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Ashley Wood, whose son attends the daycare, reposted CeeCee’s video and came to her defense.
“here 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.”
But Kelsey Tackett, another mother who has a child in a daycare in the state, said CeeCee should have been fired and called for the center where she worked to be shut down.
“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 !!!”
