A Brooksville day care worker accused of hitting a child in the face has been arrested and charged with child abuse.
Brooksville police were called to the Happy Land Daycare center at 810 Stubbs St. after the Department of Children and Families investigated a report that an employee had struck a 7-year-old child.
Justine Collins, 27, was arrested Monday and charged with third-degree felony child abuse. She was released from the Hernando County Detention Center on Tuesday on $2,000 bond.
Surveillance video released on Wednesday shows a young girl being slapped by an employee.
"You clearly see that she slapped my daughter in the face," said the child's mother Clarissa Smith. "I'm horrified."
According to an arrest report, investigators said Collins hit the girl after an argument about a toy earlier this month.
Collins said over the phone that she wasn't the one in the video, but she did confess to hitting the girl.
"I want justice to be served," Smith said. "She needs jail time and she doesn't need to be working around anybody else's children."
Officials at Happy Land Daycare say that Collins is no longer an employee.