A 34-year-old Pasco County day care worker has been arrested after investigators say she threw water in a 3-year-old autistic child’s face.
"I'm not surprised by that just because she was very aggressive with all the children," said Yhotzmine Fields. Fields is a parent at Children’s Nest Day School in Lutz. She says she had her suspicions when it came to 34-year-old Tiffany Littlepage, her daughters teacher.
"My daughter was full-time and I brought her down to part-time because I was so afraid that you know, she wasn't in good hands all day long being with her," said Fields.
Littlepage is accused of dumping water and throwing water at a 3-year-old autistic boy because he was playing with her water bottle. It was witnessed by another teacher who comforted the crying child.
"That's completely inappropriate, not how we do things, not part of our culture, not how we train teachers to deal with any situations that arise," said owner of the day care, Tripp Crouch.
Crouch says when he found out, Littlepage was fired immediately. She had only worked there since August. “She worked for several years at a different school before she was with us,” said Crouch. “We felt like she had some experience, had the proper certifications, cleared all the screenings, she was enthusiastic about working with children."
Most parents found out about the incident Wednesday. Those Bay News 9 spoke said they don’t blame the day care. "You know this one teacher, with what she did, I mean you can't hold it against all the other teachers," said parent, Candice who didn’t want to give her last name.
Fields says now that Littlepage is gone, she feels comfortable with the day care again. “I trust that the school is doing ok, I trust the teachers that are currently there so we are going to keep her there," said Fields.
Law enforcement is currently looking into the allegations her classroom aide made that Littlepage would target children with disabilities by putting children in time-out and punishing the children unjustly.