Background: Gingerbread Manor Child Care Center in Rockledge, Florida (WESH/YouTube). Insets (from left to right): Nativia King, Kia Walker, Stacy Hamilton Jackson (Brevard County Sheriff”s Office).
Three Florida day care workers are accused of hitting and “torturing” children in their care so often that the kids “expected it” — and then trying to hide the evidence.
Nativia King, 50, Stacy Hamilton Jackson, 66, and Kia Walker, 52, are all charged with third-degree tampering with a witness, while King and Jackson face three counts of first-degree aggravated child abuse and Walker faces one count of first-degree aggravated child abuse.
According to arrest affidavits obtained by Law&Crime, the investigation began on the morning of Jan. 16, when the Department of Children and Families (DCF) and the Rockledge Police Department responded to Gingerbread Manor Child Care Center in Rockledge, Florida, due to claims of child abuse. DCF investigators submitted a report with allegations stating, “All the teachers hit the children as a form of punishment. The teachers either hit with open hands or a wooden spoon. This is a common form of punishment for this facility.”
Once officers arrived at the day care center, they observed a surveillance system with cameras pointing at the classrooms and facilities, the court records state. However, according to the affidavits, when asked to see the footage, Walker “immediately started to act defensively and advised that she did not have the password.”
Walker continued to be noncompliant, authorities contend, refusing to call her technician and not allowing officers to take the video at that moment. The arrest affidavits stated that officers ended up removing the video surveillance system “as it is pertinent evidence for the case, and the video could potentially be destroyed if the system was left under Ms. Walker’s custody.”
In the ensuing days and weeks, investigators secured search warrants for the relevant video — with footage stretching from Dec. 19, 2025, to Jan. 16, 2026, the affidavits say. Multiple rooms of the day care could be seen, along with classrooms, offices, and playground areas.
On the morning of Dec. 19, 2025, King “could be observed in video surveillance, willfully and intentionally hitting multiple children in the back of the head, causing them to fall, hitting them in the face, and pulling their ears,” the affidavit for King states. “The defendant can be seen leaving the children unsupervised on multiple occasions.”
The document goes on, at length:
The defendant was also observed grabbing the back of the neck of a female child, as she pushed the child into a blind corner, hiding from the cameras. Moments later, one could observe the child coming back as they seemed visibly upset. The children appeared to be intimidated by the defendant, as they hid once she got close to them. At no point is the defendant observed doing any activities or providing care for the children; she promotes violence and presents aggressive behavior during those hours. The defendant inflicted mental and physical injury on the victims.
On the morning of Jan. 15, 2026, King allegedly “grabbed” a child “by the hair” in an aggressive way and “pushed him against the floor, while shaking him.” The child was “crying and in distress,” the affidavit for her arrest went on. “Within the same time frame, one could observe the defendant approaching another toddler child, and for no apparent reason, she willfully and intentionally strikes him in the face.”
That same day, the affidavit states, Walker could be seen in the video “poking a child with her finger in the forehead” as Jackson walks around, “hitting children with the spoon.”
The following day, Jackson reportedly entered a classroom “holding a large black-colored spoon.” She proceeded to approach a child and “hit [her] on her right leg” with it. The child appeared afraid, the affidavit said, as Jackson “willfully and aggressively swung the spoon,” hitting the child “in the neck and causing her to fall.”
Jackson allegedly then left the then-crying child unattended before placing her in a chair and slapping another child “on the side of his head, causing him to fall.”
That was the day that the DCF and police officers arrived at the facility, and the affidavits state that as they arrived, surveillance footage showed “the three suspects looking through the window.” The affidavits claim that the defendants were “obstructing the investigation by preventing the children from conducting further interviews, attempting to rip the cables of the video surveillance system, and concealing the object the kids described getting hit with.”
They all “denied hitting the children,” the affidavits added.
“In many videos, one could see the suspects either hitting the children or witnessing the acts of violence,” the documents add. “The children had adapted to the violence of the day care, and they expected it as a common behavior from the teachers. Almost every time the suspects were captured on video, they seemed angry and were torturing the children for no apparent reason, causing them to cry, flinch, and be scared.”
The ages of the children ranged from 1 to 4 years old, Orlando-based ABC affiliate WFTV reported, and the documents state that “a lot of them cannot speak for themselves or explain the abuse.” According to one affidavit, law enforcement “received multiple complaints from parents stating the suspects had reached out to them or their place of employment, to prevent them from making a statement.”
The city of Rockledge asked Friday for “any families who believe their children may have been a victim of a crime while attending Gingerbread Manor Child Care” to contact the police, noting the investigation was active.
Walker was reportedly Gingerbread Manor Child Care Center’s director, with a social media statement from the day care center in the wake of the charges being filed stating, “yesterday, the Brevard County judge immediately dismissed the unfounded and malicious charge of aggravated child abuse against” Walker, per the local outlet.
“The meritless nature of this false accusation became apparent at the earliest stage of legal proceedings,” the statement went on, with the facility threatening “legal recourse against those who filed false reports.” However, court records still show Walker is facing one aggravated child abuse charge.
King and Walker have arraignments scheduled for March 3, while Jackson’s was canceled for that day and is set to be rescheduled.
