Christabel Duah
A disturbing video showing a child appearing to be potty trained with hot sauce is sparking outrage.
Videos by Rare
In the clip, a man can be seen lifting a child upside down while holding what appears to be a bottle of hot sauce in the other. The boy is audibly crying and writhing while the man appears to pour the bottle down the boys pants, before setting him down and rubbing some on his face.
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The recording, with the caption “potty training 101,” was originally taken on Snapchat before being circulated in a private Facebook group until members made it public. Edmond, Oklahoma, resident Shana Honeycutt spotted the video and was immediately dismayed.
“I absolutely, 100 percent believe that putting hot sauce in your child’s pants and wiping it on their face is absolutely child abuse,” she told KFOR. “As soon as I saw it, I was literally shaking and crying.”
She shared it on her own Facebook page, slamming the parents.
“[These parents] think putting hot sauce on your child’s face and in their mouth is an appropriate way to potty train,” wrote Honeycutt. “I’d never shame a mom like this unless it was warranted. I’m shaking for that poor baby.”
Honeycutt reportedly reached out to the man in the video, and he told her that the same thing was done to him as a child. The boy’s mother wanted to remain anonymous but told KWTV that she would not allow her son to be in danger. According to her, he was not harmed and didn’t actually come into contact with the hot sauce.
“The video was played out to be something it wasn’t,” she told KWTV. “You can see that nothing went down his pants, and nothing was in his mouth…I would never put [my son] in harm’s way.”
In the wake of the video going viral, she has received multiple death threats.
The Department of Health Services along with local authorities have launched an investigation into the video, although police — after visiting the house Wednesday — have said they don’t believe the child is in an unsafe home, reported NY Daily News.
Casey White, a representative of DHS, while keeping mum on the details of this specific case, told the public that reporting videos like this to authorities is vital and officials urge the public to report any instances of perceived abuse.
“And, if you see something on social media, one great thing that would really help us out is if you could either, when you called, go ahead and call the hotline, but, then, if you could provide the name of the person who posted the video,” White told KFOR. “Then, like I said, even better would be to either record or screenshot that video or that picture.”
She added, “We just asked, if people see something, to say something to us.”
