Jenna Chapman

Introduction

Jenna Chapman, a 26-year-old daycare teacher from Chapin, South Carolina, was arrested and charged with unlawful conduct toward a child after investigators determined she had lifted a child by the wrist, carried the child to a bathroom, and thrown the child down with enough force to cause the child’s head and back to strike the floor. The incident at the Chapin daycare center was witnessed by another employee and captured on video, according to the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department, which announced the arrest on November 6, 2026.

Sheriff Jay Koon’s department said the conduct placed the child at an unreasonable risk of harm to both physical and mental health — the standard the charged offense exists to enforce for anyone responsible for a child’s care.

Background Information

Chapman worked as a teacher at a daycare center in Chapin, a town in Lexington County northwest of Columbia, South Carolina — a position that placed her in direct custodial care of young children for the hours of the workday. The Lexington County Sheriff’s Department investigates child-abuse allegations at such facilities, where state law criminalizes treatment of a child that unreasonably places the child at risk of harm.

The case against her rests on two independent evidentiary sources: the observation of another employee who saw the incident, and the daycare’s own video, which captured it. That combination — a witness statement and a recording — is what allowed investigators to reconstruct the physical sequence of the incident in the detail the sheriff described.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Charged; presumption of innocence. Chapman faces one count of unlawful conduct toward a child. The charge is an allegation, and she is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court.

According to investigators, Chapman lifted a child by the wrist, carried the child to a bathroom, and threw the child down, causing the child to hit their head and back. Sheriff Jay Koon put the department’s account in his own words: “Based on our investigation and witness statement, Chapman lifted a child by their wrist, carried them to the bathroom and threw them down, causing the child to hit their head and back.”

Authorities said the incident placed the child at an unreasonable risk of harm to their physical and mental health. Investigators said another employee saw the incident and that it was captured on video.

The Lexington County Sheriff’s Department arrested Chapman on a Tuesday morning in Newberry County. She was booked into the Lexington County Detention Center and, according to the department’s announcement, has since been released after meeting her bond.

The announcement of the charge — unlawful conduct toward a child, the South Carolina offense aimed at adults whose treatment of children unreasonably endangers them — arrived four days after the arrest, in the department’s Friday-morning release identifying both the charge and the evidence behind it.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The sheriff’s department publicized the arrest with the childcare context front and center: a teacher, a child in her facility’s care, a witness co-worker, and a video. The department’s release quoted Koon’s reconstruction of the physical sequence and identified the risk standard the conduct allegedly crossed, framing the case as a daycare-safety enforcement action rather than a family-custody matter.

For the daycare facility in Chapin, the arrest of a teacher on a child-abuse charge implicates the trust arrangement every childcare business operates on — parents entrusting children to staff during the workday — and the sheriff’s public identification of the teacher’s role made the allegation impossible to separate from the facility itself. The department did not announce any separate enforcement action against the facility, whose video became the evidentiary backbone of the case against its own employee.

The local coverage of the case in the Columbia market led with the physical details — the wrist grab, the bathroom carry, the throw, the head and back impact — as the department released them.

Current Status

Chapman is charged with unlawful conduct toward a child and has been released from the Lexington County Detention Center after meeting bond. The criminal case is pending in Lexington County, and no trial date or disposition has been announced. The investigation documented by the sheriff’s department is complete to the point of the arrest; any further development — additional charges, a plea, or trial — awaits the court process.

Impact on Their Career/Life

A childcare career is functionally over for the duration of the case: no licensed South Carolina daycare can staff a classroom with a teacher under a child-abuse charge, and a conviction under the unlawful-conduct statute carries imprisonment in addition to the permanent bar that any child-abuse conviction places on future work with children. Chapman’s release on bond returns her to the community pending prosecution, with the charge — and the video the sheriff’s department says exists — now the defining fact of her professional life. For the child’s family, the case is the aftermath of an incident investigators say left a child with head and back injuries from a teacher’s hands.

Sources

• WACH FOX 57 (Columbia, SC), “Chapin daycare teacher charged after child thrown to floor,” November 6, 2026. source