Two women face child cruelty charges tied to allegations of abuse at a DeKalb County day care, authorities said.
Clarkston police began investigating reports of the alleged abuse at the Clarkston First Baptist Academy earlier this month.
On Friday, investigators issued arrest warrants for Bernetta Glover and Autumn Coney on charges of first-degree cruelty to children. Police did not specify the women’s respective roles at the facility.
Coney was booked into the DeKalb County Jail on Monday, but there was no record of Glover being taken into custody. Coney’s bond has not been set, online records show.
Officials said the charges stem from child abuse allegations reported July 13. Officers responded to the day care center in the 4000 block of Church Street after security footage surfaced that appeared to show two teachers punching a child, Clarkston police said.
According to a police report obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the footage showed the teachers repeatedly pushing the child to the ground over the span of nearly three hours.
Krystin Collier said the footage showed workers inappropriately disciplining her 3-year-old son July 6, Channel 2 Action News reported.
An arrest warrant obtained Tuesday asserts that Glover assaulted the child by “grabbing him by his upper arms causing visible injury, shoving him down repeatedly, and grabbing him by his face and screaming at him” over the course of two hours.
Coney is accused of grabbing the child by “his upper arms causing visible injury, picking him up and pushing him into a wall, and yelling in his face” also over the course of two hours, an arrest warrant shows.
The child’s grandmother told police the boy came home from school visibly upset the day of the incident and Collier grew suspicious when she noticed fresh bruises on his arm.
Police said when the mother and grandmother saw the video, it showed the child being pulled off the ground by his hair and thrown into a corner. Day care workers in the video also appeared to slap and punch the boy with a closed fist, his mother and grandmother insisted in the police report.
Collier told Channel 2 one of the workers appeared to slam her son to the ground to make him sit down. She indicated she and her mother confronted one of the teachers, who seemed to suggest Collier’s son was too rambunctious.
“Very disappointed because this is a church day care, and I trusted these people with my child,” Collier told Channel 2.
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
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