The two day-care workers accused of running a kiddie “Fight Club” in New Jersey showed their faces in public for the first time on Friday, pleading not guilty to instigating the brawls.

Erica Kenny, 22, and Chanese White, 28, were charged with cruelty and child neglect for the videotaped rumbles between children ages 4 to 6 at Lightbridge Academy in Cranford.

Appearing nervous, Kenny arrived at the Union County courthouse wearing a black dress and flip-flops.

White, meanwhile, wore bright-red lipstick, skin-tight pants, stiletto heels and an open-backed, sleeveless blouse that revealed a tattoo of Tweety Bird on her left arm.

While White was charged with one count of cruelty and neglect of children in the fourth degree, Kenny was slapped with charges of endangering the welfare of a child in the third degree, as well as cruelty and neglect.

Kenny was the one who recorded the video of the tussles on Aug. 13 and shared it over the social-media service Snapchat, prosecutors said.

Neither woman had an attorney present during the proceedings.

If convicted, White could face up to 18 months in prison, and Kenny could be sentenced to up to five years.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Union County prosecutor Michael Sheets said outside the courtroom on Friday.

He added that if White and Kenny’s case goes to trial, the footage of the fistfights would be released to the public.

The video shows about a dozen boys and girls shoving and striking one another during melees and one-on-one brawls on the day-care center’s playground, prosecutors said.

Kenny can allegedly be heard egging on the children and comparing the bouts to “Fight Club,” as she quotes from the popular 1999 movie starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton, which was originally a novel.

Officials at Lightbridge have apologized to parents and referred to the violence as an “isolated incident,” insisting none of the children involved in the scuffles were injured.

White and Kenny were both fired after their charges were announced Tuesday.
The women looked shaken up as they scurried out of the courtroom on Friday. Neither would comment.

They are due back in court on Oct. 15.

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Day care workers charged with running toddler ‘Fight Club’

September 1, 2015 | 6:00pm

Two employees of a New Jersey day care center instigated “Fight Club”-style brawls between the toddlers and shared footage of the pint-sized pugilists on Snapchat, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Erica Kenny, 22, and Chanese White, 28, were criminally charged for allegedly staging tussles between kids ages 4 to 6 at Lightbridge Academy, in Cranford.

“Approximately a dozen boys and girls at the day care center can be seen in the video clips shoving each other to the ground and attempting to strike each other,” prosecutors said.

The Aug. 13 footage includes group melees and one-on-one battles, just like grown-ups Brad Pitt and Edward Norton in the film about a secret boxing club — which apparently inspired the violence, prosecutors said.

“In the video clips, Kenny can be heard referencing the activity as ‘Fight Club’ — quoting from the book and movie of the same name in encouraging the children to engage each other physically,” according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors and Lightbridge management insisted that none of the kids was injured in the scraps.

Day care officials copped to the violence but called it an “isolated incident.”

“Unfortunately, teachers at times were encouraging children to push and shove each other,” said Jaclyn Falzarano, the center’s vice president of operations.

Kenny, a teacher’s aide, and White, a teacher, have both been fired, she added.

Prosecutors refused to say how they learned of the alleged bouts, but added that they are continuing to investigate if the battles took place on more than one occasion.

Day care officials tried to make sure parents who were approached by The Post adhered to the first rule of Toddler Fight Club — which is not to talk about Toddler Fight Club.

Staffers shielded moms and dads from reporters, urging them to keep their mouths shut.

“It’s making me freak out. I am concerned,” one mom with a 3-year-old at the center told The Post. “I’m shocked and disgusted.”

She said the school sent out an Aug. 17 email that downplayed the incident. The message reads in part that staffers “allowed, and at times, encouraged the children in the Khaki Kangaroo and Brown Bear classrooms to push and shove each other on the playground,” according to NJ.com.

“I’m angry. They should have revealed everything to the parents,” said the mom, who demanded cameras outside the center to better safeguard kids. There are already cameras inside the center, and parents can tune in to keep an eye on their kids, she noted, but not on the playground where the violence allegedly happened.

White, of Roselle, and Kenny, of Cranford, were both charged with fourth-degree child abuse.

Kenny was hit with an additional charge, third-degree endangering the welfare of a child, prosecutors said.

Phone messages left at their family homes were not immediately returned.

The state’s Division of Child Protection and Permanency, which oversees day care centers, did not immediately return calls.