Daycare Probed Amid 'Smack for Snack' Game Allegations

One employee charged with assault
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Sep 30, 2016 4:20 PM CDT
Daycare Probed Amid 'Smack for Snack' Game Allegations
In this 2016 file photo, Jake Smith, 4, a student at the Kangaroo's Pouch Day Care Center, listens with classmates as his teacher reads to them at the school in Pontotoc, Miss.   (Adam Robison/The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal via AP)

Officials in Kentucky are monitoring a day care center after an investigation found that employees required children to be hit before they could get a snack, reports the AP. Citing an Office of Inspector General report, media outlets say two male workers at New Creation Childcare in Lexington made children line up and get hit on the legs or hands with a ruler to get some yogurt. At least two children had noticeable bruising as a result of playing "smack for a snack." Police cited one of the employees for assault. Officials also found the day care's storefront window shattered. Staff said one child had knocked another into the glass.

A state inspector also found that one woman was looking after 27 school-age children, 12 more than permitted under state staff-to-child ratios. Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services spokeswoman Beth Fisher said that during the investigation, New Creation was placed under intermediate sanctions that called for increased monitoring. A division of the Office of Inspector General "is currently monitoring the facility to assure compliance with the intermediate sanctions agreement," Fisher said in an email. (More daycare stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X