Pa. guard suspended over child-abuse allegations

ERIE, Pa. (AP) — A state prison guard has been suspended without pay because she’s accused of abusing four children at her home, including a 12-year-old girl who passed out when the woman allegedly held a plastic shopping bag over the girl’s head.

Forty-one-year-old Annissa Schoolfield, of Millcreek Township, did not answer the phone at her residence near Erie today.

Mindy Adams, a spokeswoman for the State Correctional Institution-Albion, says the woman was suspended without pay on Tuesday when township police filed aggravated assault and various child abuse charges. Police say the children, who range in age from 6 to 12, are now being cared for by a parent.

Schoolfield reportedly handcuffed another child, an 11-year-old boy, and beat him for taking money from his piggy bank.