- April 25, 2024
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A 65-year-old Ormond Beach former day care worker is facing four counts of child abuse charges after video surveillance from May 23 uncovered at least 30 incidents of mistreatment to small children at Dream City Academy, police reported.
Katherine Weitz was fired that same day after the day care office manager began investigating due to hearing the repeated crying of a child. The office manager checked the live video feed to identify which room the crying was coming from, and saw Weitz roughly treating a child, according to the police report. The office manager then contacted the business owner, and continued to monitor the video feed until the business owner arrived. Weitz was then removed from the classroom and questioned by day care management on her treatment of the child, which included shaking and slapping them in the face.
The business owner contacted Ormond Beach police the following day, after reaching out to the abuse hotline unsuccessfully. The police report states she was told that, unless there were documented injuries on children, they would not be able to open a case.
Weitz was supervising a room of six children on May 23, and according to police, video surveillance showed her picking children off the cots roughly, "jerking" them into position, shaking them near eye-level, flipping them over, tossing them onto their cots, pushing their faces into the cots, and slapping them in the face.
The parents of the victims involved told police they wished to pursue charges, being "visibly upset to the point of tears and extreme anger" as they saw how their child was treated, police report.
Ormond Beach police contacted Weitz at her home on May 30, where she told them May 23 was her third day of working full-time, as she was initially hired as a part-time employee. She said has taken care of children since she was 11 and had two adult children of her own. She admitted that she "lost her temper that day," according to the police report.
Weitz denied slamming a child into their cot. She told police she was "very tired and frustrated that day," and that she shouldn't have gone into work. She said she knew what she did was wrong, and wondered what it would cost her. When asked if she considered her actions to be child abuse, police report that Weitz said she hoped it wouldn't be.
Weitz has no prior criminal history or incidents.
