Five day care workers have been charged with felony child abuse after a video emerged of a person wearing a Scream mask and appearing to scare kids.
A video was shared on Facebook by a concerned colleague from the Lil’ Blessings Child Care & Learning Center, Hamilton, Mississippi.
In the footage, a person wearing a mask which looks like the one from the movie Scream can be seen getting close to the kids and screaming at them, with the children appearing to be - understanably - quite scared.
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The adult in the mask is heard to hiss 'you better be good' at the kids, but they only appear to be further frightened.
Other footage shows the kids screaming and running away, with the footage of the bizarre incident being uploaded to Facebook by a colleague who said they saw it happen before and decided to get a video.
They made it clear that the person in the mask was not them and also pointed out they weren't the one heard laughing in the footage.
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The video ended up going viral and attracted a huge amount of criticism as furious viewers 'couldn't believe' what they were seeing.
So many people questioned 'why the f**k' anyone would think it was in any way a good idea to put on a scary mask and appear to frighten children to the point that they're running away.
Another said it was simply 'mind boggling' how so many people had been involved in doing it and not realised how bad of an idea it was.
Someone else argued it was 'pure evil' rather than a lapse in judgment and suggested this incident could cause 'life long traumas' in the children affected.
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Daycare owner Sheila Sanders said she wasn't aware of the videos and what was happening until after they were recorded.
And in the latest update, Monroe County Sheriff's Office has announced that five of the workers at the day care have now been charged with various offences relating to child abuse.
They named the offenders charged in the case as Sierra McCandless, Oci-Anna Kilburn, Jennifer Newman, Shyenne Mills and Traci Hutson.
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The first four are facing three counts of felony child abuse for their part in the incidents caught on camera while Hutson has been charged with two counts of failure to report abuse and a count of simple assault against a minor, both of their charges are misdemeanours.
All five people have been incarcerated in jail, with McCandless and Kilburn having bonds of $20,000 while Newman and Mills have bonds of $15,000 each.
While five people have been charged in the case the investigation is ongoing.
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Joe Harker