Bennettsville Daycare Worker Charged for Squirting Hand Sanitizer in Child's Mouth

A Bennettsville daycare employee has been charged with unlawful neglect conduct toward a child after she squirted hand sanitizer in a 3-year-old’s mouth, according to an incident report from the Bennettsville Police Dept.

The incident happened last Friday at the child care center of First United Methodist Church in Bennettsville.

Police said they got involved after a parent called complaining that her son stated one of the caregivers had put hand sanitizer in her little boy’s mouth.

The incident report reads, "The child’s parent said her son had gotten sick from ingesting the sanitizer and was forced to 'clean it up.'"

The incident was captured on video.

The parent reported she'd already watched the video of the incident and was "disturbed by what she had viewed."

The situation happened, the incident report says, after the child became "upset about something and [wa]s pushing chairs and not wanting to listen.”

It says the teacher then grabbed the boy’s “right arm with force and what looks like forcibly pulling the victim to a storage area.“

The report said the teacher pulled out a clear plastic bag with a liquid inside and is seen on camera “forcing some of the liquid into the child’s mouth.”

The 3-year-old is seen crying and appears very distraught; he’s then forcibly led back to his seat, still crying and at some point, appears to either be spitting or vomiting on the floor, according to the police report.

The report reads: “The victim is the`n seen being lead (sic) back to the storage area to get what appears to be napkins or paper towels. The victim then goes over and seems to wipe up where he had expelled whatever (sic) was in his mouth.”

Bennettsville Police Investigator Shawn Lucas said 20-year-old LaTavia Kelley is charged in the incident.

The childcare center director, Deborah Polston, released the following statement on the matter, “We are fully licensed by SC DSS. We follow all rules and regulations and will always investigate any allegations of abuse and neglect. We received concerns from a parent and took prompt and appropriate remedial action. We have been reassured by state officials that all rules and procedures were followed. “

Stephanie Parker is the child's mother, and she tells us when she picked her son up from school everything seemed fine.

“I picked him up from school or from daycare they were on the playground he was playing. Everything was fine. We get almost home and he says she put hot sauce in my mouth and I threw it up." Parker said.

Parker says she asked another parent if her child had seen anything after her son said, "he was looking at me."

“So I reached out to her and got her to ask her son you know if he knew anything or whatever and then she called me back and told me everything basically said everything mine said, but he said germ-x instead of hot sauce," Parker said.

William Parker is the child's grandfather and he was informed of the incident the same day it occurred.

He says being a former deputy his job was and still is to protect and serve, so for a person of authority to treat a child that way is horrible.

“I was very angry. I could never imagine doing anything like that when I was a deputy and I went to a call when I was there nobody ever mistreated any child nor argued in front of children when I was there I didn’t allow that so to be in a position of authority like she was, and I was so for you to do something to a child like that is uncalled for,” Parker said.

According to Bennettsville Police, Kelley's sister Liquenna Jacobs is charged because she knew about the incident and failed to report it.