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A former Florida preschool teacher was charged with severe child abuse after he was seen repeatedly hitting a 4-year-old in the head earlier this week.
Ashley Richards, 32, was arrested Wednesday after hitting a child more than once in the head at a kindercare learning center in Dunedin, Florida.
Witnesses told the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office that screams were heard coming from the playground when they saw Richards hitting the back of his head and the side of his head with “both open hands and closed fists.” .Said.
An unidentified witness also told agents that he saw Richards push the child to the ground, prompting the witness to pull out his cell phone and begin filming the rest of the exchange.
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“Can I hit you?” Richards can be heard asking the four-year-old in the recording, according to the affidavit.
An agent from the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Department arrived on the scene and interviewed both Richards and the four-year-old boy.
According to the sheriff’s office, Richards denied hitting or punching the child, but admitted to putting his hand over his mouth to keep the child from laughing.
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A 4-year-old gave another explanation for the event.
According to the arrest affidavit, the boy told his agent that Richards punched him “as punishment” and hit him in the head and eye after a fight with his brother.
The Kindercare Learning Center told WFTS that the teacher was dismissed amid an ongoing investigation after taking a leave of absence “until further notice.”
Kindercare Learning Companies said in a statement, “Nothing is more important than the safety of the children in our care.” It doesn’t reflect the training we provide our teachers, and we are working with police to determine what happened and what didn’t.”
Richards was originally held in the Pinellas County Jail before being released on $5,000 bail, prison records show.
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She was first hired as a preschool teacher at the Kindercare Learning Center in March 2021.