Workers charged after ‘toddler fight club’ video goes viral

ST. LOUIS — Two day care workers spent 35 minutes encouraging at least six 3- and 4-year-olds to engage in fistfights in 2016, resulting in tears and a black eye for a 4-year-old on his birthday, charging documents filed Saturday say.

Mickala Guliford, 28, and Tena N. Dailey, 22, now face a felony charge of firstdegree endangering the welfare of a child creating substantial risk. A summons was issued Monday for both to appear in court Dec. 3.

Charging documents say on Dec. 7, 2016, Guliford and Dailey were in charge of a class at the Adventure Learning Center in St. Louis. They “encouraged and directed the children to engage in fistfights with each other,” charging documents say.

The fights lasted 35 minutes and involved at least six children, the charges say, equipped with a padded glove on one hand. The fights were captured on the center’s surveillance video and by one fighter’s 10-year-old brother. A video shows one child crying after a fight, and Guliford “jumping up and down with excitement.”

The fight gave one 4-year-old, identified only as “C.L.,” a black eye and red marks and swelling on his face, charges say. It was his birthday.

Neither woman could be immediately reached for comment.

One of the videos was first obtained by Fox 2-KTVI.

Last week, a spokeswoman for St. Louis prosecutors told Fox and The Associated Press that charges would not be filed, but said Monday that the office was able to obtain additional evidence. Both women have been fired.

A woman who answered a reporter’s call to the day care center Monday hung up. Christopher Leritz, lawyer for the day care center in a civil suit filed over the incident by the mother of the child with the black eye, declined to comment because of the pending litigation.

No lawyer is listed for either woman in court documents.