Kristina Wood

Introduction

Kristina Wood is a childcare worker from Milton, Florida, who was arrested and charged with abuse of a child without causing great bodily harm — a felony — after Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s deputies said she slapped, dragged and slammed a young boy at a daycare in Pace, Florida. The charge stems from an incident that deputies say happened on July 22, 2026, at Touch of Love Child Care, and was reported by Mollye Barrows of the Pensacola News Journal via The List Wire on September 4, 2026. According to the sheriff’s office, there is video of the alleged abuse showing Wood slapping and dragging the boy across the room and slamming him onto a sleeping mat twice. Wood has been charged but not tried; she has not entered a plea and is presumed innocent. The case drew attention not only for the allegations themselves but for the daycare’s handling of the incident: deputies say the director fired Wood and reported the matter to state child-welfare authorities, but waited two days to tell the boy’s mother, who then went to police because she wanted to press charges.

Background Information

Publicly available information about Wood’s life is limited. She is 31 years old and listed her residence as Milton, a city in Santa Rosa County in the Florida Panhandle. She worked at Touch of Love Child Care, a daycare facility in Pace, a nearby community also located in Santa Rosa County. No details about her education, how long she had worked in childcare, or her personal history have been reported in connection with the case. What is known comes almost entirely from the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office arrest report and the deputies’ description of the facility’s video, as summarized in the News Journal’s reporting. The boy involved in the alleged incident was a child at the daycare; his age has not been disclosed.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Allegations. The claims in this section come from a Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office arrest report and deputies’ description of childcare-facility video as reported by the Pensacola News Journal via The List Wire. Wood has been charged but not tried; she has not entered a plea and is presumed innocent. Her firing by the daycare director is an established employment fact.

The incident that led to Wood’s arrest is alleged to have taken place on July 22, 2026, at Touch of Love Child Care in Pace. According to the sheriff’s office, video and witness accounts from the facility show that Wood grabbed and slapped the boy, then dragged him across the room. In the arrest report, deputy Cole Foster described what he saw on the video: “Kristin grabs the victim by the arm and drags him across the room as his knees dragged the floor.” The deputy’s account continued: “Kristin picks the victim up and slams him in a sleeping mat two times…Kristin is seen slapping the victim in the back of the head.”

In the report, the deputy characterized the acts as intentional and said they could reasonably be expected to result in physical injury. Based on the incident, Wood was charged with abuse of a child without causing great bodily harm, a felony under Florida law. Deputies also noted that the alleged abuse was captured on the daycare’s video, meaning the account rests on both the footage and the statements of coworkers who witnessed it. The boy’s age was not disclosed in the reporting, and the News Journal did not report that the child suffered lasting injuries.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The alleged incident might not have reached authorities promptly but for Wood’s coworkers. According to the arrest report, they saw the incident and reported it to the daycare’s director, who then reported it to the Florida Department of Children and Families and “subsequently terminated Kristin’s employment.”

The daycare’s handling of the notification drew scrutiny. The report says the facility told the boy’s mother about the incident on July 24 — two days after it happened — and she alerted police the same day because she wanted to press charges. Her decision to go to law enforcement directly is what set the criminal case in motion. The News Journal reached out to the director of the facility for comment about the delay and the firing, but a response was not immediately provided. Beyond the family’s report to police and the director’s report to DCF, no broader public reaction — protests, statements from officials, or social media response — was documented in the reporting.

Current Status

Wood was arrested and charged in connection with the July 22 incident, with the arrest reported on September 4, 2026. She is out of custody on $1,000 bond. Court records indicate she has not yet entered a plea to the charge, and as a condition of her release she must make and keep an appointment with a public defender. Her next court date is scheduled for November 12, 2026, in Santa Rosa County. Until the case is resolved, the allegations against her remain just that: allegations. She has been charged but not convicted, and the outcome of the November hearing and any subsequent proceedings was not known at the time of the reporting.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The most immediate professional consequence is that Wood lost her job. The daycare director terminated her employment after coworkers reported the incident, ending her work at Touch of Love Child Care. She now faces a felony charge that carries the possibility of a criminal record, and the pending case requires her to appear in Santa Rosa County court and to keep appointments with a public defender. A felony child abuse charge in Florida would also ordinarily create obstacles to future work with children, though the reporting did not address her employment prospects beyond the firing. Her release on a relatively low bond means she remains free while the case proceeds, but the charge — and the video and witness accounts deputies say support it — now define her public profile. For the daycare, the episode raised questions about its two-day delay in notifying the boy’s mother, and for the family, the mother’s decision to report the incident to police the same day she learned of it ensured the case did not end with an internal termination.