Day care workers charged with running toddler ‘Fight Club’
Two employees of a New Jersey day care center instigated “Fight Club”-style brawls between the toddlers and shared footage of the pint-sized pugilists on Snapchat, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Erica Kenny, 22, and Chanese White, 28, were criminally charged for allegedly staging tussles between kids ages 4 to 6 at Lightbridge Academy, in Cranford.
“Approximately a dozen boys and girls at the day care center can be seen in the video clips shoving each other to the ground and attempting to strike each other,” prosecutors said.
The Aug. 13 footage includes group melees and one-on-one battles, just like grown-ups Brad Pitt and Edward Norton in the film about a secret boxing club — which apparently inspired the violence, prosecutors said.
The Lightbridge Academy day care center.
“In the video clips, Kenny can be heard referencing the activity as ‘Fight Club’ — quoting from the book and movie of the same name in encouraging the children to engage each other physically,” according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors and Lightbridge management insisted that none of the kids was injured in the scraps.
Day care officials copped to the violence but called it an “isolated incident.”
“Unfortunately, teachers at times were encouraging children to push and shove each other,” said Jaclyn Falzarano, the center’s vice president of operations.
Kenny, a teacher’s aide, and White, a teacher, have both been fired, she added.
Prosecutors refused to say how they learned of the alleged bouts, but added that they are continuing to investigate if the battles took place on more than one occasion.
Day care officials tried to make sure parents who were approached by The Post adhered to the first rule of Toddler Fight Club — which is not to talk about Toddler Fight Club.
Staffers shielded moms and dads from reporters, urging them to keep their mouths shut.
“It’s making me freak out. I am concerned,” one mom with a 3-year-old at the center told The Post. “I’m shocked and disgusted.”
She said the school sent out an Aug. 17 email that downplayed the incident. The message reads in part that staffers “allowed, and at times, encouraged the children in the Khaki Kangaroo and Brown Bear classrooms to push and shove each other on the playground,” according to NJ.com.
“I’m angry. They should have revealed everything to the parents,” said the mom, who demanded cameras outside the center to better safeguard kids. There are already cameras inside the center, and parents can tune in to keep an eye on their kids, she noted, but not on the playground where the violence allegedly happened.
White, of Roselle, and Kenny, of Cranford, were both charged with fourth-degree child abuse.
Kenny was hit with an additional charge, third-degree endangering the welfare of a child, prosecutors said.
Phone messages left at their family homes were not immediately returned.
The state’s Division of Child Protection and Permanency, which oversees day care centers, did not immediately return calls.
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