What a Texas father saw when he decided to visit his two-year-old son’s daycare center last year sent him running for the facility and has now sparked a million-dollar lawsuit.
An unidentified father logged into The Children’s Courtyard’s livestream on July 27, 2023, and watched in horror as a daycare worker suffocated his son in an attempt to keep him calm during naptime, a new Texas lawsuit claims. according to KVUE.
The employee then allegedly pulled back the sheets and repeatedly hit the child in the face and head while he was not sleeping.
The father then ran to the Austin facility to confront staff members about what he had seen, but the daycare never reported the abuse to state officials or law enforcement, according to the lawsuit.
A worker at The Children’s Courtyard daycare in Austin, Texas, was caught on camera suffocating a two-year-old boy in an attempt to keep him quiet during naptime and then repeatedly hitting him when he wouldn’t sleep.
Daycare officials also allegedly told concerned parents that the employee in question would be suspended for one day for his actions.
The boy’s mother, Alexis Dominguez, is now seeking $1 million in damages for her son’s physical and emotional injuries.
She claims in the lawsuit that the video showed her son trying to cover his face and head with his hands to block blows from the unidentified social worker.
But the repeated slapping caused the boy to “rock back and forth with each blow,” the lawsuit claims. according to the Idaho Statesman.
Dominguez and the boy’s father eventually decided to remove their son from the daycare and reported the incident to state authorities.
“It is clear that The Children’s Courtyard did not value my son’s safety or express concern for his well-being,” she said.
Anyone with a modicum of common sense understands that choking and hitting a child is completely unacceptable.
Alexis Dominguez, left, the boy’s mother, has now filed a $1 million lawsuit against the daycare.
The Texas Health and Human Services Commission’s Child Care Licensing Division and the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services investigated the incident and cited the daycare for five violations.
They found the daycare had abused the boy, covered his head with a blanket, used prohibitive punishment to discipline the child and allowed the employee in question to remain near the children for three hours after daycare officials learned of the abuse, according to state records.
Additionally, the state found that daycare officials failed to report the abuse.
But The Children’s Courtyard, a chain of daycare centers across Texas, is no stranger to controversy.
The daycare has been cited 70 times since 2019, according to state records.
He has been cited 70 times since 2019, according to state records.
The violations include children left unsupervised, failure to report incidents, lack of competency and a situation where children were dancing on tables and removing their clothing, according to KVUE.
In 2017, Jazmine Torres, an employee at The Children’s Courtyard in Plano, Texas, was caught on camera slamming an 18-month-old baby face-down on the floor while trying to get him to sleep.
She was later fired from the center.
“The serious safety issues at The Children’s Courtyard are rife with red flags and warning signs,” said Dominguez’s attorney, Russell Button.
“It is clear that this daycare does not prioritize the safety of children based on the treatment of our client’s son and the history of the facility.”
However, a spokesperson for The Children’s Courtyard insisted: “The health and safety of the children we serve is our top priority.
“While we can confirm that the employees in question no longer work at The Children’s Courtyard, and we are constantly reporting and partnering with all relevant regulatory authorities, we are unable to comment further on ongoing litigation,” the spokesperson continued.
It’s unclear whether the unnamed employee ever faced criminal charges for the abuse, though the Austin Police Department said they had no record of any report.
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