A Florida woman faces child abuse charges after police say she spanked other parents’ children at a sleepover she was hosting.
“One girl mentioned that she was hit in the knee with a wooden spoon, and another one said that she was hit with a shoe,” Fred Jones of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office told WESH. “And then there was another victim who was held down so that she would not leave.”
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office says 29-year-old Erin Pierce was hosting a sleepover when she started to spank children there with a belt, a shoe and spoon, according to The Villages-News. Around 20 children were at the sleepover, according to WFTV9.
Zabrina Tidball, who had two children at the sleepover, told WKMG that she “can’t imagine any parent doing that to a child.”
“She was kicking the kids,” Tidball told the TV station. “She physically put her hands on them.”
Caden Johnson, Tidball’s 12-year-old son, said that he was one of Pierce’s targets.
“She came out with a belt and told me to go and she started beating me as I was going out,” Caden told WKMG.
A police report says that “a few of the children said Pierce had been drinking at the time of the incident,” as reported by WFTV9.
In an interview with police, Pierce allegedly told officers that she started to spank the children after one flipped her off, WESH reported. One mom, who wished to remain anonymous, told WESH in an on-screen interview that her son “came running home” from the sleepover.
Pierce was released from Lake County Jail on a $15,000 bond, according to The Villages-News. She is charged with false imprisonment and child abuse, according to WESH2.
Now, Caden said he is left with memories — and bruises — from a sleepover gone bad.
“It hurt,” the boy told WKMG. “She hit me worse than, like, anything.”
