A Florida woman was caught on camera tossing and slapping toddlers during her third day on the job at a local daycare.
Katherine Weitz, 65, was charged with child abuse after she ended up harming the children she was hired to care for at Dream City Academy in Ormond Beach, Fla., on May 23.
“There was shaking (and) a couple of kids being smacked during nap time,” Ormond Beach Police Officer Keith Walker told local ABC affiliate WFTV. “Some of the kids, she palmed the back of their heads with her hands and pushed them face forward in their cots.”
The abuse was discovered when the daycare’s office manager heard children crying and decided to check the surveillance footage. Video shows Weitz aggressively pick up and flip a child over, violently shake their head and kick their cot.
Walker said parents were “very upset” when they heard about the abuse.
“We found over 30 incidents that could be considered child abuse to at least four different children,” Walker told WFTV.
Weitz reportedly told police she woke up with a headache that day and thought about calling in sick, but went to work instead where she was impatient with the kids. When asked by cops if she thought she’d broken any laws, she responded, “Probably.”
Police said Weitz had passed a background check before being hired.