Florida Day Care Workers Allegedly Tortured Kids, But Their Next Move Was Even More Sickening, Cops Say

Imagine a day care where children were allegedly so accustomed to being smacked by adults that they “expected” it as part of their daily schedule. That’s the alleged stomach-turning reality described in arrest affidavits out of east Florida, where three day care workers now stand accused of transforming a place of care into a house of horrors.

Police began to investigate the Gingerbread Manor Child Care Center in Rockledge — about an hour outside of Orlando — on Jan. 16 after the Department of Children and Families (DCF) received a tip alleging ongoing child abuse.

“All the teachers hit the children as a form of punishment. The teachers either hit with open hands or a wooden spoon,” DCF investigators alleged, WESH 2 Rockledge reported.

Once officers arrived at the day care center on Eyster Blvd., they observed cameras pointing at the classrooms and asked to see the footage, court records obtained by Law & Crime read. However, day care worker Kia Walker “immediately started to act defensively” according to her arrest affidavit.

Detectives confiscated the entire video surveillance system and received the videos on Feb. 4, allegedly showing three adult women doing the unthinkable.

Surveillance footage between mid-December to mid-January allegedly captured several children, ages one to four, being “hit, slapped and pulled in an aggressive manner” by Stacy Hamilton Jackson and Nativia Latrice King, according to WESH 2.

Hamilton Jackson was allegedly seen on video hitting a three-year-old with a “large black colored spoon” on Jan. 16. The toddler was also allegedly hit “willfully and aggressively” in the neck by Hamilton Jackson when she didn’t follow her directions.

King’s arrest affidavit accused her of “intentionally hitting multiple children in the back of the head, causing them to fall, hitting them in the face and pulling their ears” on Dec. 19. The 50-year-old allegedly yanked a child “by the hair” a month later, and intentionally struck another toddler in the face “for no apparent reason” minutes after. King was not shown on camera providing care for the children, authorities claimed.

Walker is also accused of “poking a child with her finger in the forehead.” Authorities claimed the suspects even tried covering their tracks.

The trio allegedly tried to rip cables out of the camera system and prevented police from interviewing kids and hiding the items the kids claimed they were hit with. Police said parents told them the defendants also contacted them “to prevent them from making a statement.”

They are all charged with third-degree tampering with a witness, while King and Hamilton Jackson face three counts of first-degree aggravated child abuse and Walker faces one count of first-degree aggravated child abuse. “The children had adapted to the violence of the day care, and they expected it as common behavior from the teachers,” the arrest affidavit said.

Three families who said their children were abused told Fox 35 Orlando: “We will pursue justice relentlessly for the children and parents affected, and we will ensure that those responsible are brought to justice and never allowed near children again.”