Texas father checks in on his two-year-old son's daycare livestream - what he sees sends him rushing to the center and sparks $1 MILLION lawsuit
What a Texas father saw when he decided to check in on his two-year-old son's daycare last year sent him running to the facility, and has now sparked a $1million lawsuit.
The unidentified father logged into The Children's Courtyard's livestream on July 27, 2023 and watched in horror as a daycare worker smothered his son in an attempt to keep him quiet during nap time, a new Texas lawsuit claims, according to KVUE.
The employee then allegedly pulled the covers off and repeatedly slapped the child in the face and head when he did not sleep.
The father then rushed to the facility in Austin 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 suit.
A daycare worker at The Children's Courtyard in Austin, Texas was allegedly caught on camera smothering a two-year-old in an attempt to keep him quiet during nap time and then repeatedly hitting him when he would not go to sleep
Officials at the daycare also allegedly told the worried parents the employee in question would be suspended for one day for their actions.
The child's mother, Alexis Dominguez, is now seeking $1million 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 the hits from the unidentified care worker.
But the repeated slaps caused the boy to 'rock back and forth with each blow,' the lawsuit claims, according to the Idaho Statesman.
Dominguez and the child's father ultimately decided to take their son out of the daycare, and reported the incident to state authorities themselves.
'Clearly The Children's Courtyard did not value my son's safety or express concern for his well-being,' she said.
'Anyone with basic common sense understands that smothering and hitting a child is completely unacceptable.'
Alexis Dominguez, left, the mother of the child, has now filed a $1million lawsuit against the daycare center
The Texas Health and Human Services Commission 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 that the daycare had abused the child, covered his head with a blanket, used prohibitive punishment to discipline the child and allowed the employee in question to stay around children for three hours after daycare officials learned of the abuse, according to state records.
Additionally, the state found that the daycare officials did not report the abuse.
But The Children's Courtyard - a chain of daycares throughout Texas - is no stranger to controversy.
The daycare center has been cited 70 times since 2019, according to state records
It has been cited 70 times since 2019, according to state records.
Among the violations are children being left unsupervised, failure to report an incident, a lack of competency and a situation in which children were dancing on tables and taking off their clothes, according to KVUE.
In 2017, Jazmine Torres - an employee of The Children's Courtyard in Plano, Texas - was caught on camera slamming an 18-month-old face down on the ground while trying to get him to sleep.
She was later fired from the facility.
'The serious safety issues at The Children's Courtyard are full of alarm bells and red flags,' Dominguez's attorney, Russell Button, said.
'It is clear this daycare does not prioritize child safety based on the treatment of our client's child and the facility's track record.'
A spokesperson for The Children's Courtyard, however, insisted: 'The health and safety of the children we serve is our highest priority.
'While we can confirm the employee(s) in question are no longer employed at The Children's Courtyard, and we consistently inform and partner with all relevant regulatory authorities, we cannot comment further on ongoing litigation,' the spokesperson continued.
It remains unclear whether the unidentified employee ever faced criminal charges for the abuse, tough the Austin Police Department said they had no record of a report.
