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Two preschool teachers have been arrested for cruelty to children after parents watched them abuse two and three-year-old students on a live video stream from the classroom.
Footage from inside the Pre-Primary B classroom of Parker Chase Preschool, in East Roswell, Georgia, allegedly shows Zeina Alostwani, 40, and Soriana Briceno, 19, pushing and shouting at children as they sat in a circle on the floor as a group last week.
Zeina Alostwani is seen standing on a child’s hand and kneeing another child in the back, while 19-year-old Soriana, who is sat in the centre of the group of children, shouting at one child close to their face. She also shoves them in the forehead with her finger.
The children in the class covered by Alostwani and Briceno are between two and three years old.
The footage, which is being used as evidence in the case, was seen by a parent who decided to tune in to the school’s live-streaming of classrooms, on Thursday June 2.
Two preschool teachers have been arrested for cruelty to children after parents watched them abuse two and three-year-old students on a live video stream from the classroom. Pictured is one of the teachers arrested, Soriana Briceno, 19
Footage from inside the Pre-Primary B classroom of Parker Chase Preschool, in East Roswell, Georgia, allegedly shows Zeina Alostwani, 40 (pictured), and Soriana Briceno, 19, pushing and shouting at children as they sat in a circle on the floor as a group last week
Gloria Barghi, the mother of one of the preschoolers in the classroom, said she went to watch her son after she had a ‘weird feeling’ that she needed to check on him.
‘I just told my husband, I said. “I’ve got a weird feeling I’ve got to check on our son”. Call it mother’s intuition, I said, “I just want to see if he’s okay”,’ the mother told WSB-TV.
‘I pulled up the app… I picked it up right when the lead teacher was assaulting the first victim.
‘It was intentional. It was thought out. It was malicious… these are defenceless little kids.’
When describing how school staff responded to her claims, Mrs Barghi said: ‘They were at first a little taken aback. It almost came across as defensive, not believing that it really happened.
‘They had no policies in place, there was no, “If this happens, these are the procedures we go by,” to the point that I had to demand that the teachers were removed from the classroom.
‘And we would not leave until they were removed. The director even looked at me and questioned, “So you want me to remove them?”, and I said “You better believe it. Remove them now”.’
Police later arrested the two teachers who are allegedly seen in the footage, 40-year-old Alostwani and 19-year-old Briceno, and charged them both with cruelty to children in the first degree.
In Georgia, people found guilty of cruelty to children in the first degree can face a minimum of five years and maximum of up to 20 in prison.
Zeina Alostwani is seen standing on a child’s hand and kneeing another child in the back, while 19-year-old Soriana, who is sat in the centre of the group of children, shouting at one child close to their face. She also shoves them in the forehead with her finger.
Soriana, who is sat in the centre of the group of children, shouting at one child close to their face
Zeina Alostwani, 40, is seen standing on a child’s hand (pictured) and kneeing another child in the back
Mr and Mrs Barghi revealed that since sending their three-year-old son to the East Roswell preschool nine months ago, they have noticed changes in his behaviour that may suggest abuse in his classroom has been ongoing.
She continued: ‘I think back now to the things he’s told me, I think my son was trying to tell me all along, he’s expressed not liking the teachers, not wanting to go to school, crying to go to school.
‘And of course, he has some behaviours now, after talking to professionals, that we do need to get him evaluated and make sure that the children are all okay.
‘I think as a mom, your job is to protect your child. And there’s a guilt, that I put him in that environment every day.’
The 19-year-old teacher, Briceno, is also seen shoving a child in the forehead with her finger
Alostwani, pictured, is alleged to have kneed another child in the back with her shin and foot
Mrs Barghi’s husband Duncan added: ‘We took our child and we handed them to these monsters because we trusted in the school, we trusted in their staff to protect and watch over our children. And they’re evil. They’re evil.’
Police are now investigating several weeks of classroom footage to see if Alostwani and Briceno, as well as any other teachers, have assaulted other children.
The mother of the child who fell victim to the abuse in the video, who did not want to be identified, said: ‘[I] knew what we had seen was deliberate and my stomach was just in my throat at that point.’
The pair appeared in court on Tuesday where prosecutors gave Alostwani a $75,000 bond. Briceno was not given bond because of her immigration and asylum status.
Alostwani and Briceno currently remain in Fulton County Jail.
Endeavor Schools, which owns the Parker-Chase campus in Roswell, released a statement which read: ‘While we are extremely ungrateful that the children are well, we take this matter seriously and our investigation is ongoing.
‘We expect our staff to adhere to the highest standards of care, and any failure to do so will not be tolerated.’
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