- Five Mississippi women have been charged in connection to viral videos showing children being scared with a mask.
- The charges range from felony child abuse to misdemeanor charges of failure to report child abuse and assault on a minor.
- Katelyn Johnson, a mother of a child at the daycare, told ABC News that she was "in complete shock of what I witnessed."
Four Mississippi women connected to viral videos showing children in a daycare being terrorized with a 'Scream' mask are now facing felony child abuse charges and a fifth woman is facing a misdemeanor failure to report charge, according to police.
Monroe County Sheriff Kevin Crook said in a statement that Sierra McCandless, 21; Oci-Anna Kilburn, 28; Jennifer Newman, 25, and Misty Shyenne Mills, 28, face three counts of felony child abuse, while Traci Hutson, 44, faces misdemeanor charges of failure to report abuse by a mandatory reporter and simple assault against a minor.
A judge set bond for McCandless and Kilburn at $20,000 and $15,000 each for Newman and Mills, according to the Associated Press. Hutson is not required to post bond because her charges are misdemeanors, the AP reported.
"It's just a shame it happened and this is where we're at. Hopefully, people will learn from it," Crook told the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal. "It can tear a community apart. Everybody who was a part of it knew each other in some shape or form. It's a lot of emotions to deal with, and our job is to cut through those emotions, find the facts and present those facts."
Shiela Sanders, the owner of the daycare, Lil' Blessings Child Care & Learning Center in Hamilton, Mississippi, has said that at least 4 people were fired as a result of the videos.
In one video, the children can be seen crying and hiding from a woman as she chases them. One woman, who identified herself as CeeCee, said in a tearful apology obtained by The Daily Mail that she is the person behind the mask in the video.
"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," she says in her apology.
CeeCee goes on to say that she had been employed at the daycare for around four years in the apology video.
"I did not go in there at my own discretion. As in, I didn't go in there with the intention to literally traumatize those children. I expected them to react the way they reacted when I did it," she says in the apology.
"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've known those kids their whole life."
Katelyn Johnson, the mother one of the children who attends the daycare, told ABC News that she was "in complete shock of what I witnessed."
"Whether they had a mask on or a mask off, their behavior was unacceptable," Johnson told ABC. "My blood pressure was raised. It broke my heart for my child. I was angry."
"I hope you're enjoying jail and I hope you realize what you have done is serious," Johnson continued. "It is not a joke and it is nothing to laugh at."
According to CNN, Melissa Parker, the director of the Office of Licensure with the Mississippi State Department of Health, said that Lil' Blessings had not reopened as of Thursday.
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