FLORIDA’S PINELLAS COUNTY: Ashley Richards, 32, a preschool instructor from Dunedin, Florida, was detained on Wednesday, August 10, following a disturbing incident in which she repeatedly struck and battered a four-year-old kid in the head. She has been accused of criminal child abuse and sacked from the preschool, Kindercare Learning Center.
According to the authorities, she punched the child more than once. An arrest document from the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office states that a witness heard screaming coming from the playground’s direction. Going over, she observed the preschool teacher repeatedly pounding the youngster “in the back and side of the head with both an open hand and a closed fist.”
Ashley Richards, 32, is facing criminal abuse charges.
The witness claimed that Richards even shoved the boy while still assaulting him, knocking him to the ground. The witness was motivated by this to take out her phone and start videotaping what was happening. Do you want me to smack you? the teacher can be heard yelling at the youngster in the video clip.
Deputies from the Pinellas County Sheriff’s office came on the scene and interrogated both Richards and the four-year-old. Richards allegedly denied striking the child while being questioned. The boy was laughing at her, and she said that all she had done was put her palm over his lips. She continued, saying that she even comforted the youngster.
The preschooler, who was four years old at the time, however, claimed to the authorities that the instructor beat him “as a sort of punishment” after he got into trouble for fighting with his brother. She punched him, hitting him in the head and eye, he continued.
Richards has been on administrative leave since her arrest. In March 2021, she had started working as a preschool instructor at Kindercare Learning Center in Dunedin, Florida. She was brought to Pinellas County Jail on August 10 after the officers accused her of felony abuse. She was later released on the same day after posting a $5,000 bond, according to police records.
In response to the event, Kindercare Learning Center reportedly said, “The wellbeing of the children in our care is our first priority. The reported behaviours of the teacher do not represent who we are or the instruction we give our instructors.”