Furious parents respond to damning footage of child cruelty at preschool
Two preschool teachers have been charged with child cruelty after a parent saw them allegedly abuse their students.
Zeina Alostwani, 40, and Soriana Briceno, 19, have been fired from their jobs at Parker-Chase Preschool in Roswell, Georgia and charged with first-degree child cruelty.
The classroom has a parent monitoring livestream which allegedly showed Alostwani and Briceno stepping on children’s hands, kneeing them and poking their foreheads.
“That parent reported logging onto the camera system and seeing concerning physical contact between Alostwani and Briceno against several children in the classroom,” police said in a statement.
Footage shows the students between the ages of two and three sitting in a circle on a rug when one of the teachers allegedly steps on a child’s hand for several seconds before allegedly kneeing a second child in the back.
Then one of the teachers is on all fours and gets extremely close to one of the kids and allegedly pokes them repeatedly in the forehead with her finger.
It is alleged that the child who was poked in the forehead was the same one who was allegedly kneed in the back.
Alostwani and Briceno were arrested and charged with first-degree child cruelty when the parent made a complaint.
The preschool released a statement expressing their shock and disappointment of the “inappropriate disciplinary actions with children”.
“The teachers in question were immediately removed from the classroom and have been dismissed. We reported this matter to our licensing agency and Children’s Protective Services and are co-operating fully with the authorities, who have informed us that criminal charges are being pursued,” the statement read.
“While we are extremely grateful that the children are well, we take this matter seriously, and our investigation is ongoing. We expect our staff to adhere to the highest standards of care, and any failure to do so will not be tolerated.”
Images: Roswell Police