Employees of the Children's Aid Society Chambersburg are accused of promoting a children's fight club

FRANKLIN COUNTY Pennsylvania (WHP) — Two employees of the Children's Aid Society in Chambersburg face more than a dozen charges for filming children beating each other in fights they allegedly incited.

On June 24, 2024, the Office for Children, Youth and Families was contacted because two employees, Sheldon Cross and Matthew Stouder, were attempting to incite youths to engage in a fight.

When officers from the Chambersburg Police Department began their investigation, the child welfare organization said there was no camera footage of the area where the fight allegedly took place.

Stouder and Cross' court documents indicate that video footage was obtained by the Chambersburg School District because the fight took place on the grounds of Benjamin Chambers Elementary School.

According to police, the video showed the two standing next to each other while seven different teenagers attacked each other.

Cross was also reportedly seen kicking one of the children who was already on the ground.

In the video, officers stated that ten fights broke out between the seven teenagers without Cross and Stouder intervening.

Chambersburg Police sat down with one of the children involved, who told them that Cross taught them self-defense techniques and allowed them to “wrestle” with each other, with Cross acting as a referee for the alleged “fights.”

The child then told officers that the children had been involved in a “fight club” and that Cross, after talking about UFC, recommended fighting in the “GAGA ball pit.”

Police said the child also told them that the fights included punching and kicking and that Cross forced her to participate even though she did not want to participate.

Cross is said to have told all the children involved not to tell anyone about the fighting.

The following month, on July 18, officers spoke with another child involved who said punching and kicking was allowed in the fights, but anything above the neck was not. The child also said he was repeatedly kicked in the back of the head and that other children were thrown over the wall of the ball pit and put in headlocks by other youths.

Cross and Stouder's affidavits also state that they recorded the fights and sent them to other employees of the children's charity.

Stouder also allegedly told officers that the children had been participating in a WWE-style wrestling match. However, when confronted with the recorded videos, Stouder admitted that the children had hit each other. However, he did not believe they had been violent and that no one was injured.

Cross and Stouder were charged later Monday with nine counts of bribery of minors and seven counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

CBS 21 News has reached out to the Children's Aid Society in Chambersburg for comment but has not yet received a response.

This story is constantly developing. Stay with CBS 21 News for more details as they arrive.