A Texas couple is suing a Fort Worth daycare for more than $1 million after surveillance footage allegedly showed a substitute teacher encouraging her four-year-old son to fight another child.
Heather and Richard Harris filed the lawsuit against Arka Risinger Educators LLC, which operates Arka Montessori Academy of Risinger. The case centers on an April incident involving their four-year-old son.
According to the lawsuit, another child pushed their son before the substitute teacher, who was the other child's mother, entered the classroom. The complaint alleges she later allowed and encouraged her son to continue confronting the boy.
The lawsuit claims the substitute teacher grabbed and shook the Harris family's child and later encouraged her son to kick and hit him. At one point, she allegedly held the boy by his wrist and swept his leg from underneath him, causing him to fall onto the hardwood floor.
The parents say they learned the extent of the incident only after demanding to see surveillance footage. Their attorney described what happened as resembling a “child fight club.”
The family alleges their son suffered bruises, scratches, headaches and lasting anxiety following the incident.
Texas regulators later cited the daycare for prohibited disciplinary practices, including grabbing, pulling, yelling and physical restraint, as well as failing to ensure caregivers properly protected children.
The substitute teacher is no longer employed at the daycare, and no criminal charges have been filed.
The lawsuit seeks more than $1 million in compensation and exemplary damages, alleging negligence, gross negligence and premises liability.