Arden Hills day care worker charged with slapping toddler

Ramsey County prosecutors have charged former New Horizon Academy worker Ruby Christian Kolbow, 35, with third-degree assault and malicious punishment of a child after surveillance video allegedly showed her slapping a 3-year-old boy in the face at the Arden Hills center on March 10, 2026. According to the criminal complaint, Kolbow initially told supervisors and regulators the child’s bloody nose was from an accident, but the boy later told his mother a staff member hit him, triggering a Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families report and a sheriff’s investigation. Investigators say video from the room shows the child sitting with a book when Kolbow takes it away and strikes him with an open hand, then wiping his nose with paper towels as he raises an arm defensively. Court documents say New Horizon suspended Kolbow during its internal review and then fired her; law enforcement has been unable to reach her, and she is charged by summons with a first court appearance set for May 7. For Twin Cities parents, it’s another reminder that when abuse happens inside child-care rooms, the only solid record often comes from surveillance footage and state complaints, not from what centers volunteer on their own.