There’s not a lot to say about this one. I usually don’t write about incidents that are obviously unethical to this extreme, but when something broadens my understanding of the full range of human depravity, and makes my head explode, like this story, attention must be paid.
I missed the first coverage of this atrocity, which sounds like a bad joke, two years ago. Last week, Virginia jury found day-care provider Kierra Spriggs, 26, guilty of four counts of felony child cruelty and two misdemeanor counts of assault and battery after a two-week jury trial in Prince William County. She was a “teacher” at the idyllically named Minnieland Academy at the Glen until fellow teachers blew the whistle on her in 2014.
Testimony during the trial indicated that Spriggs habitually and sadistically mistreated the toddlers, including encouraging twin sisters to fight each other. Prosecutors characterized her crowded classroom containing nearly 20 toddlers from 18 to 27 months as “baby fight club.” She also..
…fed a Flamin’ Hot Cheeto to a toddler, leaving the girl gasping for air.
…stepped on kids’ toes and laughed.
…put rubber bands on the toddlers’ hands and snapped them.
…intentionally tripped a running child.
…dumped water on a little girl’s head.
…taught the children to abuse each other.
Good. But questions remain in whatever segment of my brain that isn’t on my ceiling, walls, and laptop. Like..
How could TWO women think two-year-olds was a good idea? I wouldn’t think you could find two such women in a whole state, and this day care facility managed to hire two of them? This isn’t just an ethics alarms malfunction, it’s ethics alarms that had to be re-programmed to act like Hal the Killer Computer in “2001: A Space Odyssey.” “Why don’t you have the little girls fight, Kierra?”
I have always believed parents take an irresponsible risk entrusting their pre-school children with caretakers whom they don’t know, are often inadequately trained, and have not received a level of vetting commensurate with their duties. This story has done nothing to assuage those doubts. Parents said that now they understood why their two-year olds screamed and cried “NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!” when it came time to take them to daycare.
You know, call me hyper-critical if you like, but when your child hates day care that much, it is time to do some investigation.
Ethics Alarms 
Irma Grese would be proud.
One: I hate to add another regulation to the compendium but a day-care version of the “nanny-cam” wouldn’t be a bad idea. Not open to parents’ casual oversight, no — the center would collapse in a day –, but periodically collected and randomly spot-checked by (yes, I know, overworked) CPS, police, social worker) hired child psychologist … anyone qualified, independent, and relatively incorruptable. Or the day-care facility could pay a security company to install & maintain the system as part of their insurance contract. If the data collection is done digitally, the information would be permanently stored online to be available to back up whistle-blowers or for any criminal or other legal charges, including the day-care personnels’ defense.
Two: Two-year olds who arrive home disturbed or unhappy or any child unable to describe or point to what’s troubling them — three and up are usually good at saying “what happened” — need to be removed from that situation. Watching the child, NOT the caregiver’s open smile or concerned moue, when the either child or caregiver is reporting is the best intimation of their relationship. The report doesn’t say how long the abuse had been going on, but it sounds like the parent(s) wasn’t paying attention.
Great idea!
When your head blows up, doesn’t that green and yellow gunk get all over the ceiling and drip back on the keyboard?
You have no idea.
Wait, wait, wait: Other teachers testified that she “habitually” treated children this way? How was it that she was allowed to habitually and systemically do ANYTHING after they witnessed incident number one? What am I missing? Please tell me I’m missing something.
This is indeed troubling.
did the teacher not have a boss?
Darn good question. I trust someone is suing the owners out of business.
A two week trial? Two weeks? And this was the second defendant to be tried? Who’s running that court room?
Who’s running the prosecution?