Effort, Monroe County – A graphic video of child abuse in the Poconos has gone viral and led many people to question the way police handled the case.

State Police say they are getting swamped with calls from people who saw a video of a woman beating and berating a six-year-old boy at a home in Effort. Many callers believed police ignored the case. However, that is not true. Court records show police arrested and prosecuted the woman, Michelle Elkins.

While the incident happened last summer, the child’s father recently posted the video on Facebook. It quickly went viral.

The video shows Elkins (the man’s girlfriend at the time) in an angry rampage. When she gets mad at the man for not handing over a cell phone, she beats his son with a wooden spoon. She declares, “You like watching your son be abused? Because I’m gonna keep doing it.”

Throughout the nine minute video, Elkins beats the child and verbally abuses him. She says, “And you, I just don’t like you so please go play in traffic and get hit by a car so you’re dead. ‘Cause no one wants you around, ever.”

The father, and another woman in the house asked her to stop but neither physically intervened. Online supporters claim the father had reported her abusive behavior in the past but police did nothing so he felt he had to record proof. Court records do not indicate the father called police to report the recorded abuse.

The video ends with the father and two boys in a van preparing to drive away.

Arrest paperwork shows an unnamed person asked State Police to do a welfare check on Elkins because she was cutting herself. When police arrived she admitted she was upset because her boyfriend left the house after she beat his six-year-old son with a wooden spoon.

In April, a judge sentenced Elkins to two years probation. She also has to pay supervisory fees, continue mental health counseling, and take all of her prescribed medications. She is also not allowed to have unsupervised contact with any children, including her own.

Eyewitness News is not releasing the father’s name to protect the child’s identity and because he was not charged with a crime in this case.



He did not respond to a request to comment on this story.



State Police say the people involved in the case now live in Kentucky.