Video Allegedly Shows Day Care Employee Pushing 2-Year-Old Girl
The Montessori school says it has fired the employee and four others.
— -- A video of a preschool employee appearing to push a child to the ground has been viewed over 600,000 times and led to five firings.
The cell phone video -- taken from an apartment that overlooks the playground at Apple Montessori School in Hoboken, New Jersey -- captured a school employee struggling to put a hat on a 2-year-old girl before the employee appears to push the child to the ground and leave her there.
"As a parent of a child who attends Apple, I was appalled by it,” Michael Russo told ABC News. "It was hard to watch.”
The incident reportedly happened almost one month ago but was just shown to school officials on Wednesday, ABC New York City affiliate WABC reports.
The toddler’s father, Brett Stenhouse, told WNBC the action against his child was worse than he thought, after being informed by the school that an incident had occurred.
“It was really disturbing,” Stenhouse told WNBC. “I didn't expect it to be as severe as it actually was.”
The school's owner fired the person at the center of the video as well as four other employees, including the location’s director.
“The safety and well-being of our students are our top priorities,” Apple Montessori said in a statement to ABC News, also adding that the school will institute new safety measures. “We are outraged by the lack of care and concern this former employee showed.
The state’s Department of Child Protection and Permanency said in a statement to ABC News that, “confidentiality laws prohibit us from commenting on or confirming allegations or individual investigations.”