SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — The owner of a Sioux Falls day care is charged with child abuse. 44-year-old Ametrea Christion was booked into the Minnehaha County Jail Wednesday night and released on bond an hour later.
Christion is charged with physically assaulting an 11-year-old boy at Wildflower Academy in August.
The day care closed last week and an investigation began.
“One of the things the police department does in situations like this is we’re looking for the well-being of children, other children that may be present. We had enough information that we believed there was a potential that other children may be in harm’s way if they stayed in that day care,” Sam Clemens with the Sioux Falls Police Department said last week.
According to court documents, police reviewed a video of the incident.
That video reportedly shows Christion hitting the boy in the head, and as he tries to run away, Christion grabs him and pulls him back by the hair. The boy falls to the ground and is struck again.
The affidavit goes on to say as Christion prepares to hit him once more, another adult in the room appears to say something to which Christion then lets go of the boy.
When detectives confronted Christion about the video, she claimed it was “fake.” She later denied pulling the victim by his hair and said it was by his head.
Court documents say that Christion said there was no video of the incident, and that she and the victim were only playing around.
A witness told police she saw the assault happen, and says she told Christion she should not have treated him that way. Court documents say Christion responded that the victim was “not a normal child.”
When officials interviewed the boy, he told officials he was crying and hiding, and that Christion yelled at him for being emotional.
D-S-S suspended Wildflower Academy’s license on October 23rd.
Christion invited KELOLAND News into her business in 2021 for a story about child care costs.
