Shocking moment preschool teaching aide slaps, shoves and sprays liquid on young children in class - as furious parents speak out

Furious parents have spoken out about the alleged abuse their children experienced at the hands of an Arizona teaching aide. 

Disturbing footage showed Tracey Stewart, a former Chino Valley Head Start Child Care Center worker, repeatedly slap, shove and spray children with liquids in the classroom. 

Now, four mother's, Jessica Ouellet, Courtney Silva, Blanca Aguiar and Nicole Stroh, have taken legal action against Stewart and the daycare. 

Tracey Stewart, a former Chino Valley Head Start Child Care Center teaching aide, is seen spanking a young girl before forcing her into a seat in January 2023 

Stewart is seen hovering over a young boy before she forcibly removes him from his chair. In another clip she was seen shoving him in the face 

The lawsuit revealed that Stewart was previously fired as a teacher's aide at another daycare for abusing children before she started at Chino Valley Head Start. 

'I honestly, I did not want to watch. But when I was watching them, all I see is a person that's completely out of control,' Aguiar told Fox 5. 

'A person that has a lot of rage to, you know, the kids, that she has zero patience with them,' she added. 

Video clips of the shocking moments start with Stewart in a classroom with a group of children in January 2023. 

Stewart is seen talking to other kids and pointing towards Ouellet's non-verbal daughter before she storms over to the little girl, grabs her, spanks her and forces her into a chair. 

Another shot shows the teaching aide dragging the girl away from the table in her chair. 

A police report was filed following the traumatic incident, as Ouellet said she cried when she read it. 

'Obviously like, freaked out and mad. Why would anyone hit her for what reason?' 

'It's a parent's worst nightmare,' Ouellet said. 

The officer that wrote the report described Stewart's behavior as 'physically' and 'verbally aggressive' toward Ouellet's daughter. 

After the Chino Valley Police Department investigated the incident involving her daughter, Stewart was placed on administrative leave. By March 2023, she was fired. 

Aguiar also learned that the teacher's aide got physical with her son as video showed the moment Stewart shoved him. 

While holding a paper in her left hand, Stewart is seen using her right hand to shove Aguiar's son in the face. 

Jessica Ouellet, the mother of the non-verbal girl who was seen being spanked by Stewart said: 'It's a parent's worst nightmare' 

In another clip, Stewart was seen spraying the cleaning liquid Tersano directly at two children 

The officer that wrote the report described Stewart's behavior as 'physically' and 'verbally aggressive' toward Ouellet's daughter (pictured) when she spanked her 

Another clip shows her son being aggressively grabbed out of his chair by Stewart. 

His distraught mother said that police told her that her son 'was shoved in an aggressive manner.' 

'I feel like I should have been there to protect him, and I wasn't,' Aguiar said. 

In another video, Stewart is seen cleaning a table with a liquid she sprays out of a bottle. 

As she sprays it, she points the bottle directly at two students, striking them in the face with the liquid. According to police, the spray contained the cleaning solution Tersano.

Silva told Fox 5 that her son was one of the children that was sprayed by Stewart and that she wasn't initially informed about it. 

'I have guilt and shame for it every single day. There is not one day that goes by that I don't feel horrible for it,' she said. 

In other clips, Stewart is seen swatting a child in the face with napkins and also pulling a kid's head back before she swiftly gets in his face. 

Both Silva and Ouellet said that they started to notice 'red flags' from each of their children. 

'So red flags started coming up in my mind when they would call me probably at least once a week, if not three, telling me he's crying hysterically, saying his stomach hurts or he would have a fever or whatever the reason was, and I'd have to come get him during the day, and he was perfectly fine,' Silva said.

Ouellet said that her daughter, who used to be 'excited' to go to school, soon became noticeably frightened to go. 

Blanca Aguiar also learned that the teacher's aide got physical with her son as video showed the moment Stewart shoved him 

After the Chino Valley Police Department investigated the incident involving Ouellet's daughter, Stewart was placed on administrative leave. By March 2023, she was fired

'Then it was like a switch. She just was fighting, going to school, throwing a fit. She started having bad dreams, and like, nightmares,' the mother said. 

When Stewart started at Chino Valley Head Start, three managers covered up her abuse history in order to allow her to keep working, according to the lawsuit. 

The lawsuit revealed that in December 2022, Stewart pulled a mat from under Stroh's child and caused her to fall and hit her head. 

The suit described that a manager who witnessed the incident take place did not take any action. 

'I just kind of thought, 'Ok, maybe she just rolled off',' Stroh said. 

'When it came to my attention that one of the teachers actually removed the bed from underneath my daughter, I was furious, and I was in shock.' 

Chino Valley Head Start Child Care Center serves newborn children to five-year-old's in Apache, Navajo, Coconino and Yavapai counties. The program is run by the Northern Arizona Council of Governments. 

In response to the lawsuit, the daycare center has denied all allegations and said that they are entitled to immunity. 

'As I am sure you understand Chino Valley Head Start is not in a position to comment on pending litigation,' Chino Valley Head Start said in a statement. 

'However the program takes its responsibility to the children in the program very seriously as we take the allegations. The matter is being fully investigated and we are confident that we will be able to demonstrate the significant effort put into caring for the children in our charge.' 

Solomon Radner, the attorney defending the mother's, said that the videos make his 'blood boil.' 

'What I see, and what it appears to me, is that there is somebody who is acting clearly more aggressively with these children than any reasonable person would. There's simply no reason for this kind of thing,' he said. 

Another mother, Courtney Silva, said that her son was one of the children who was sprayed in the face by Stewart. She said that he has since been diagnosed with PTSD 

Chino Valley Head Start Child Care Center serves newborn children to five-year-old's in Apache, Navajo, Coconino and Yavapai counties. The program is run by the Northern Arizona Council of Governments

Nicole Stroh explained how in December 2022, she found out that her daughter fell off her bed and hit her head after Stewart pulled a mat from under her 

After she was let go, the Chino Valley Police Department recommended that the Yavapai County Attorney's Office charge Stewart with aggravated assault on a minor. 

The attorney's office then declined to file and said that there was 'no reasonable likelihood of conviction.' 

The mother's are outraged at this decision and have requested that Stewart faces a jury trial where they will seek compensatory or punitive damages. 

Silva said that her son has since been diagnosed with PTSD from his interactions with Stewart. 

'He has night terrors. He pees the bed. No matter what I do to try to console him, he just becomes beside himself, screaming, 'No, no, no, no,' like I'm going to hurt him,' Silva said. 

Ouellet said: 'How is this person just able to go about her life and her day as if nothing happened? They just simply fired or let go.' 

'Our kids are in therapy. They've regressed. They've had night terrors. They had bedwetting,' Ouellet added. 

Each mother admitted that they regret ever sending their children to the school.