Childcare Workers Charged with Felonies for Scaring Children

Law enforcement has charged former employees at a Mississippi childcare center with felony child abuse after they donned a mask similar to the one in the movie “Scream,” and chased 2-year-old children around the room scaring them. Authorities charged a fifth teacher with failure to report suspected abuse and misdemeanor assault. The incidents came to light after someone posted video of the incidents on social media. Prosecutors plan to present the charges to the grand jury for indictment.

There’s no doubt that the teacher’s actions were wildly inappropriate. It seems to be a novel interpretation to fit them within Mississippi’s felony child abuse statute. Mississippi law does define “abused child” as one whose “custodian or any person responsible for his care or support . . . has caused or allowed to be caused, upon the child . . . emotional abuse.”  There doesn’t appear to be any definition of “emotional abuse,” at least in relation to children. Courts considering emotional abuse as grounds for divorce have required a persistent pattern.  

The difference between misdemeanor and felony child abuse is whether “the endangerment results in substantial harm to the child's physical, mental or emotional health.”  News reports don’t explain what “substantial harm” the children suffered, although one parent said her son is having trouble sleeping through the night.

Mississippi’s mandated reporter statute requires reports from childcare providers and “any other person having reasonable cause to suspect” that a child is an abused child. The definition of “abused child,” as noted above, includes emotional abuse.

The takeaway for youth serving organizations from this incident is that, if an employee’s actions are particularly outrageous, many criminal laws are broad enough to include them within the definition of child abuse. In Mississippi at least, mandated reporters need to pay attention to any actions that someone can describe as emotional abuse. As our society becomes more aware of child abuse, the definitions of what society considers to be abuse continues to expand.