COBB COUNTY, Ga. — The director of an after-school childcare program has been accused of choking a child.
Now, the child’s mother is concerned about the way the facility is handling this situation.
The victim’s mother, Teerrica Warren, said the facility’s corporate team told her the director who choked her son would be fired, but she told Channel 2 Cobb County Bureau Chief Michele Newell that when she arrived to pick her daughter up, she was shocked to see the director open the door and let her in.
“I trusted these people with my children with their safety,” Warren said.
Mission 1:27 is a faith-based organization that provides free childcare through Adventure Centers at a number of different Walton Apartment Communities in Cobb County and across Georgia.
“Their mission is to love kids and be there for kids. I feel like they failed us,” Warren said.
She told Newell that the director of the Adventure Center at Walton Ridge Apartments assaulted her 12-year-old son.
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Karmen Edwards, who is listed as the director on the organization’s website, is charged with simple battery.
“She grabbed him by the throat and began to choke him for several minutes,” Warren said.
Warren said her son picks up his sister from the Adventure Center after school with no problems.
Earlier this month, she said the process took a turn for the worse.
“Ms. Karmen Edwards attacked him, and she choked him inside the center because he refused to answer what she asked him to do,” Warren said.
Warren said she felt helpless as she watched security camera video that she says shows Edwards choking her son.
“Traumatic, discomfort, fearful, angry,” Warren said. “Why? Why would you do this?”
Warren said she had to take her son to the hospital, even showing Newell the discharge papers.
“He suffered from a concussion with his neck,” Warren read from the papers.
Newell stopped by the center. The property manager kicked our photographer off the property before he gave Newell contact information for whom she should speak to.
Newell was told she would get a response. Walton Communities later sent a statement, saying:
“Walton Communities management takes seriously the recent claims against an Adventure Center team member. We are cooperating fully in the police investigation.”
The program is not licensed by the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning and is not required to be licensed because it provides free services.
The state does not regulate or routinely inspect the program.
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