While at a Lancaster, California, park last Friday, Evette Jones pulled out her phone to record what she was witnessing.
According to ABC 7, Jones saw a day care worker, who was sitting on another park bench, grab a young child by her hair and push her forward. Jones initially shared the video on Facebook, writing:
At Tierra Bonita park in Lancaster a waman who is a childcare provider to about 7 children. She was slapping and hitting the Hispanic children and also neglecting the seemed to be 2yr old child sitting on the hot asphalt she would slap several of the children in the back of the head several times for no apparent reason. I was only able to get some footage before I contacted the authorities because I only had these two videos I was told that it wasn’t categorized as child abuse but If I would have gotten all of the times she hit these children then maybe something could have been done. PLEASE HELP SPREAD THIS STOP THIS ABUSE TO THESE CHILDREN THEY HAVE BEEN THRU ENOUGH!!!
Eventually, the video fell into the child’s mother’s hands, who reported the incident to the police two days later. According to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s officials, the day care where the alleged employee works is located in Palmdale, California. However, the specific name of the day care has yet to be released.
The employee seen in the video has been identified as 54-year-old Yolanda Kieth. The director of Palmdale’s Child Resource Center told authorities that the girl’s mother handpicked Kieth from a list of names to watch her child.
As ABC 7 reports, a few days after Jones captured the alleged abuse, she has had the chance to talk to the 9-year-old child’s mother, who said her daughter “has autism and lacks the ability to speak or express herself.”
The mom told Jones she was “furious” after she saw the video.
Jones got emotional as she described what she saw on that June 14 day at Tierra Bonita Park to ABC 7:
“This child can’t stand up for herself. She can’t let her mom know what happened to her.”
She continued:
“I have children. And the fact that she can’t talk, and the fact that she’s probably hurting — and lord knows what this lady has done in the past. It just breaks my heart. […] It breaks my heart that she can’t tell us what she’s been through, but God knows that justice will be served.”
Jones is pleased by the action being taken since her videos went viral.
An investigation conducted by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Special Victims Unit is still ongoing. Anyone with any information regarding this particular case is asked to call the special victims unit’s tip line at (877) 710-5273.
It’s unclear if Kieth faces any charges for her actions.