Two preschool teachers from Georgia were arrested after video showed them hitting students. The Roswell Police Department said that they began investigating the teachers at Parker-Chase preschool after receiving a complaint from a parent.
Gloria Barghi told WSB-TV that she logged into the school's computer system and was shocked when she saw two of the teachers hitting the children.
"I just told my husband, I said, 'Call it mother's intuition.' I just want to see if he's OK,'" Barghi told the news station. "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 defenseless little kids.
After viewing the video, Barghi called the police, contacted the parent of the victim, and then went to the school to demand answers. Barghi said she was met with indifference by school officials, who refused to take action against the teachers.
"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," she said.
"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.'"
The Roswell Police Department obtained copies of the surveillance camera footage and took two teachers, Zeina Alostwani, 40, and Soriana Briceno, 19, into custody. They were each charged with cruelty to children in the first degree. Following the arrests, several other victims have come forward.
Endeavor Schools, which owns the preschool, said they are taking the matter seriously and will cooperate with the investigation.
"We take this matter seriously, and our investigation is ongoing," the organization said in a statement. "We expect our staff to adhere to the highest standards of care, and any failure to do so will not be tolerated."