Inset: Samantha Hertzog (Coweta County Sheriff’s Office). Background: Day care worker Samantha Hertzog allegedly slamming a 3-year-old onto a cot on camera (Atlanta News First/YouTube).
A Georgia day care worker has been accused of being “aggressive and mean” with kids, including a 3-year-old who was “forcefully body-slammed” onto a cot on camera, prompting criminal charges and a lawsuit from the child’s parents.
Samantha Hertzog, 33, faces cruelty charges after surveillance video allegedly shows her kicking a young girl’s cot — flipping the child onto her face — before slamming the toddler face-down on the cot’s hard frame, according to a lawsuit filed by the youth’s mother, Stephanie Watts, in Gwinnett County.
The complaint, which was obtained by local ABC affiliate WSB, says Hertzog carried out the alleged attack at Big Blue Marble Academy in Sharpsburg after Watts’ child became “restless during nap time” and “kept taking her shoes off.”
“Hertzog berated [the child] for ‘not following directions,'” the complaint alleges, citing video footage from inside the day care provided by local police. “Hertzog then lifted [the child] by the torso and forcefully body-slammed [the child] face-down.”
Watts and her legal team say her daughter started screaming and crying, to which Hertzog allegedly said, “That’s why you don’t play!”
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Police later observed and documented a “cut” on the child’s nostril, along with swelling and bruising “across the bridge of her nose” and left eye area, and emotional trauma, including a clinical diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), according to the lawsuit.
Watts’ lawyers are seeking a jury trial and compensatory and punitive damages. They point to Hertzog’s criminal history and alleged complaints from staff and parents about her “assaultive behavior,” which allegedly prompted Hertzog’s ex-husband to seek a restraining order against her on behalf of him and their two young children, per the complaint.
“In 2020, Hertzog was arrested and charged with assault,” the complaint alleges, accusing Big Blue Marble of not properly vetting her before she was hired in 2024.
“Soon after Hertzog started working at the Premises, another Big Blue Marble teacher complained to Big Blue Marble Director Amanda (‘Jenny’) Woods that ‘Samantha was aggressive and mean with the kids’ and that she ‘did not want Samantha in [her] classroom anymore,'” according to the complaint.
On Feb. 20, Hertzog allegedly “grabbed and scratched” a 3-year-old boy because he was not being a “good listener,” per the complaint. The boy’s parents allegedly reported the physical assault to Big Blue Marble the same day and subsequently “moved [the boy] out of Samantha’s classroom,” the document says.
“Big Blue Marble did not report that incident to the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning,” the complaint alleges. “Big Blue Marble did not reprimand Hertzog for that incident. Big Blue Marble did not suspend Hertzog for that incident. Big Blue Marble did not terminate Hertzog for that incident.”
The alleged “assault and battery” on Watts’ daughter happened on March 21, according to her lawyers, and led to Hertzog being charged on March 26 with first-degree cruelty to children. She’s scheduled to go on trial in February 2026.
“As soon as we were made aware, we acted swiftly to report the incident to local authorities and conduct an internal investigation, which resulted in the immediate termination of their employment,” Big Blue Marble Academy officials told WSB in a statement last week, as they are also named as defendants in the lawsuit. “We have zero tolerance for the mistreatment of the children within our care and will continue to cooperate with local law enforcement and licensing authorities as the investigation continues.”
