Florida Woman Allegedly Kicked Child In Head At Daycare

A Florida woman has been arrested and charged with one count of child abuse after she allegedly kicked a child in the head at a daycare facility that employs her. KLAS-TV News reports that 49-year-old Linda Klemm can be seen on surveillance footage kicking a very young child in the head. The Saturday incident reportedly took place at the Kids Stop-N-Play Daycare center, which is located in Holiday, Florida. While the details of this case are slim, they still paint a portrait of what many parents fear every day as they drop their children off into the arms of people who are entrusted to care for them.

The alleged abuse was discovered by the child’s parents (who are not being identified to the media at this time). The child reportedly went home with bruising and abrasions on her head that weren’t there before she had been dropped off at the daycare center. The father took charge and returned to the center with his child to demand answers.

“I took her up to the day care and I said, ‘This did not happen at my house. This happened here.'”

WFLX Fox 29 News reports that the Florida woman has been released from jail on $5,000 bail, but no reports indicate whether or not she’s addressed the situation or tried to clarify it with any media source. However, it was previously reported that she claimed to only tap the child with her foot to wake her from her nap. Nonetheless, surveillance footage from the Florida daycare allegedly shows Linda Klemm aggressively kicking the young child in an abusive manner. A still image of this footage exists.

This is not the first time Linda Klemm has been arrested, which makes it hard to imagine how she ever managed to be hired at a daycare center. That’s especially after noting the reasons for her prior arrests. She was reportedly arrested in 2009 on two different charges — retail theft, and contributing to the delinquency/dependency of a child. No further details are available about her prior arrests.

This is also not the first time a Florida woman has been in the media for abusing a child at a daycare center. A 2014 Florida Today report shares that Carolyn Philogene-Hylton was arrested for child abuse after she allegedly hit a young boy in the head. Surveillance footage of this particular incident shows the woman taking the lad into a bathroom and reemerging several moments later with a bandage on his head. She claimed at the time that he had fallen forward, then changed her story at least one more time before she was charged.

[Photo credit: FDLE mugshot]