VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. – Two people were arrested on child neglect charges Tuesday after a child showed up to school in dirty clothes and cockroaches in her backpack, according to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office.
Samantha Acker, 37, and Christopher Rounds, 36, were arrested on four counts of child neglect. Four children, ages 8, 10, 15 and 16, lived in the home, deputies said.
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The sheriff’s office responded to a Deltona home on Tuesday after receiving a report from an abuse hotline that one of the children in the home was pushed during a video call. A Volusia high school staff member also reported one of the children came to school wearing dirty clothes and there were cockroaches in her backpack, according to an arrest affidavit.
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According to the affidavit, the home “appeared to be completely infested” with cockroaches and other bugs.
Deputies said the area outside the front door of the home was covered in over 200 cigarette butts and the AC did not appear to be in working condition. It also appeared the children’s sheets had not been washed in some time, the affidavit showed.
Rounds told deputies the house was in bad condition due to financial issues. Acker told deputies the house was “a mess but was not that bad” and it looked that way because the kids did not help her clean, the affidavit said.
Rounds also faces a charge of resisting an officer without violence.
Both were booked into the Volusia County jail.
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