Nursery workers terrifying children

[Hitatiks]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11288091/Daycare-worker-scares-toddlers-puts-Halloween-mask-SCREAMS-children-bad.html

Has anyone seen this?!
I had to stop watching the video. Its one of the worst things I have ever seen!

The worker deliberately terrifies the children, who are toddlers, by screaming at them in a Halloween mask, they are visibly terrified, screaming, crying, calling for their mothers. At one point she appears to comfort a child by stroking their head, and then screams in their face again. The worker who filmed this said her colleagues had done this previously and she told the managers but no action was taken so she recorded it when they did it again so she could send it to parents.

So here is my AiBU. Am I BU to think that if we valued early years workers more, and they were properly trained professionals with an understanding of child development (like understanding that such young children can't separate fact from fantasy so think a monster is really screaming in their face, or that young children are not 'bad' they are just young and its your job to cope with their behaviour - that is literally your job) then abuses like this would just not happen (yeah I know its America but there are lots of badly paid and poorly trained early years workers here too. I mean, this is not one bad apple. This was done in open sight of colleagues.

I can agree that it’d be dealt with better in the UK and that there is better legislation in place, though. But there are awful scumbags like her everywhere. Some of the things I’ve witnessed from staff whilst working in childcare in the UK…honestly I could go on for days.

of Course there are. As there are in many other settings. People are, unfortunately, human beings, and not all human beings are nice people.

TBH though your child is probably more at risk with a childminder as they work in isolation, whereas at least in a nursery it’s likely that such behaviour will be picked up and dealt with.

YABU to think this is a result of not valuing or training early years workers. This incident was the fault of the abusers, nobody else is responsible. You don’t need to be trained to know this is wrong! Millions of people have seen the footage and know it’s wrong, and they’re not all childcare professionals. It’s obvious to anyone with half a brain that this is abusive and shouldn’t have happened.

"Ignore and move on like we should do with 99% of the shit coming from the US"

@HighlandPony are you for real? I take it you're not a Mum to have such a cold and dismissive attitude to little children being terrified in a place where they should feel safe and secure... the behaviour from so called 'daycare workers' in that footage is absolutely appalling and outrageous and it should definitely not be a case of 'ignore and move on' - hopefully the tough US justice system will deal with them and lock them up...

YABU to think this is about qualifications. It's about child abuse, and child safeguarding.

I watched the video and found it extremely distressing. How disgusting that this person was allowed to terrorise and abuse children.

She would have needed to use her medical insurance if one of them kids were mine.

You said all Americans care about is guns and greed. That is blatantly racist.

I am a mum, as I’ve said I’m sick to fucking death of my kids glorifying the US and talking about it like we’re there so I can’t for the love of fuck understand why grown adults are too. There are literally a million things need discussion relating to our countries, countries where real change actually happens. The US proves day after day it’s not going to deal with its issues so why bother discussing it? US justice? You mean the hood old shoot them if they’re black type justice? Massively over inflated jail sentences for petty crimes in privatised overcrowded facilities? The justice system that means a woman can spend a night in jail for forgetting to return a rented dvd? Fucking glorious in the US isn’t it?

@MayThe4th
You said that all Americans care about is guns and greed. That’s blatantly racist. The fact you feel justified in your hate doesn’t make it any less racists. All racists feel justified.

Oh my goodness. Could only watch a few seconds had to switch off when she started shouting at that baby. What twisted wicked people. The other one stood laughing. Sorry havent read the thread all way through. Just felt needed to offload my rage first. Hope the were sacked and arrested. Those poor poor kids. We had a terrible experience with a teacher in junior school back in the 70s. He thought was hilarious to trick us with something scarey. Took me years to feel safe in my bed at night. Those that think it's funny are abhorrent!

Oh shut up. Minimising what these sickos did to those kids. Halloween is scary to alot of kids. No need to bring that sort of horror into a school.

I posted too soon by accident.

The justice system that locks up mums who have miscarried or had a stillborn, the justice system that allows underage marriage in too many states (and I say underage meaning under even sixteen). The justice system that allows 18 year olds to buy and use assault rifles and fucking anti tank weaponry if they choose but loses its collective shit if a 19 year old has a few beers? You could call Iranian justice ‘tough’ but I sure as fuck wouldn’t be lauding it.

Bizarre that you think this has to do with qualifications. People like this psycho abuse their power with or without them.

I think you're posting on the wrong thread @HighlandPony This is a thread about child abuse. If you're not interested, move along.

No. It’s not.

you might want to go and read back before you start tagging the wrong posters.

I said that America has more or less banned abortion, panders regularly to the Christian far right, and school shootings there are routine. All of which are true.

There are plenty of countries which have some abhorrent practices. It’s not racist to point those out, or are we racist for having something to say about the Russians? No?

Plenty of Americans couldn’t give a shit about how many children are shot in schools on an almost daily basis, just as long as they can all carry a gun.

Meanwhile you’re happily spreading around a child abuse video….

In fact if you want to cry racism, it could be argued that you spreading around this video in order to promote what kind of conditions are apparent in American nurseries is equally racist. Given that it happened in America and not here.

This is appalling. When my son was a toddler he'd freak out if I wore red lipstick so god know how frightened these children were. She should be locked up.

@Highland Pony Aside from other reasons, the negatives that happen as trends in America have a nasty habit of turning up here in a more UK form here in an average of ten years.

(Oh and I wouldn't be pointing the finger too hard about underage marriages, we have our own version. I'm one of them)

This is spot on! It's not a case of poor training, it's a case of being an abuser enjoying being in a position that enables her abuse. I do dislike social media but this is one of the instances I'm happy for it. The local community, school and parents will know ALL about this because of this going viral, and they will be baying for blood right now, and if there is a case for law enforcement I bet it will be pursued. I bet a local politician will have noticed too and will pick it up.

Exactly. My 10 year old would have more sense and empathy.

I think this is along the lines of what I was thinking of. Of course you don't need specialist training to see that was wrong. But systems can create cultures which sows the ground for abusive behaviour to develop. In early years in the part of the UK I am in, it is very hard for nurseries to find, and then retain, staff. The staff are almost exclusively very young women, with basic qualification levels, its hard work ( looking after young children is hard), on your feet all day, long hours, poor pay and often poor support and training available, yet often high expectations. There's little career structure too, nursery managers are on only about £20k where I am. These are ideal breeding grounds for compassion fatigue.

If we valued early years, if it was a respected profession, with well paid staff who were well supported the behaviours described above would be far less likely to happen.

This is nothing like Harold Shipman, for PP who have made that comparison. HS knew what he was doing was wrong and sought to hide it from colleagues and everyone else. Those nursery workers thought what they were doing was acceptable. And in their nursery they were right, weren't they? According to the whistle blower this had happened before and she told the managers, yet they just got a 'slap on the wrist' and the behaviour continued. The entire culture of the nursery thought this ok, or at least couldn't see it as completely unacceptable.

I think it is unreasonable to use an example like this from the US to make a point about early years workers here being underqualified. You do not need a degree to see what was wrong.

Ok you're right, it was Highland Pony who said that, I made a mistake - you were replying and saying its not racist to say all Americans care about is guns and greed. So wrong poster but still replying to the same argument.

You don't appear to understand what racism is (remembering that under UK law racism includes discrimination etc against someone because of their nationality). Its not racist to argue against practices in a country that you disagree with, such as liberal gun laws. It is racist to use the existence of that law to attack an entire nation of people, such as in a statement like, ' all they care about is guns and greed.'

The terrified faces and cries of those tiny children literally made me cry. This is abuse plain and simple. The person doing it, and her fellow workers watching and letting it happen know it’s wrong. You cannot train people or pay them more to make them not evil.