Man ‘forcefully’ yanked kids off merry-go-round during school field trip, OK cops say

Kids were playing on a merry-go-round at an Oklahoma park when parents say a man started to “forcefully” yank children from the playground equipment.

The Jenks Police Department was called to Veterans Park at 1 p.m. April 27, and responding officers had to separate the “verbally irate parents” from the 36-year-old man.

Parents reported the man had been hitting their children and said he removed the kids from the “overcrowded merry-go-round,” according to a news release from the police department.

The students and parents were on a field trip with Catoosa Public Schools at the time of the incident, police said. The district did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News on April 28.

Eleven children reported the man had hurt them, police said, and some had visible injuries.

Those kids told police the man had grabbed some of them by their necks, and he threw kids to the ground, KOKI reported. Police did not provide the ages of the children.

Police said all children who were hurt were “medically assessed” at the park, and they were released to either their parents or the school chaperones.

The man was arrested and charged with child abuse connected to 11 victims, according to the news release.

He told police that he wanted the children off the merry-go-round because too many kids were on it, KOKI reported, and it seemed dangerous.

Veterans Park is a city-owned facility with a playground, picnic pavilions, a pond and more, according to the city’s recreation website. Jenks is a suburb south of Tulsa.