A daycare "fight club" run by two female employees at a New Jersey childcare center has resulted in their arrest, and it has left at least one mother unable to trust anyone to care for her kids.
Erica Kenny, 22, and Chanese White, 28, were charged with fourth-degree child abuse after they allegedly instigated and encouraged children from two classrooms at Lightbridge Academy in Cranford to fight with each other
, the New York Daily News reported. Kenny also faces a child endangerment charge.
Eliana Meira Rantz, 31, had two young children enrolled at the facility and was horrified to find out that the fighting bouts were videotaped and sent out on Snapchat.
"It’s just quite shocking,” Rantz, of Linden, New Jersey, told the Daily News. “I’m now staying home with the kiddos and working part time. You can’t trust anybody.”
The daycare center issued a statement after the
women were charged on Tuesday, The Associated Press reported.
The center said it was "shocked and saddened by this isolated incident." The two women were suspended after the center learned about the issues in mid-August. They were later fired, according to the AP.
"While no children were physically harmed during this incident, we have a zero tolerance policy for anyone who acts in conflict with the core value of Lightbridge Academy — the safety and
well-being of children," the statement read, as quoted by USA Today. "We terminated the employment of these staff members and have maintained open communication with our parents throughout this process."
The "fight club" term came to be attached to the bouts because Kenny allegedly sent a video of the fights to her friends along with a quote from the movie "Fight Club," according to the Daily News.
No children were injured and it believed there was just one fight that occurred in August, the AP said. In the video, children aged 4 to 6 were seen hitting each other and pushing each other down.
© 2023 Newsmax. All rights reserved.