A local mother is seeking $1 million in damages from an Irving daycare due to the alleged negligence and mistreatment of her toddler.
Nataly Radwan filed a lawsuit in Dallas County on Friday accusing the Little Dumplings Daycare of disciplining her son inappropriately, according to a news release from The Button Law Firm.
Radwan enrolled her 2-year-old son in the daycare in December 2021.
Radwan claims that her child frequently came home from the daycare with “unexplained injuries,” prompting her to review the daycare’s live-stream footage. She saw in the video footage that her son was being ignored by staff while asking for water and food, according to the lawsuit.
She said her son was removed from his place at a table by one arm, his head was forcefully pushed into a pillow, and he was isolated from the other children.
When Radwan reported this back to management, the daycare agreed that the discipline was inappropriate, but the owner did not report the incident to state authorities, even though required to do so by law, the complaint alleges.
Radwan’s attorney, Russell Button, said the mother reported the incident to the state herself.
“We encourage parents like Ms. Radwan to report any incidents to the state so that they can be properly investigated, held accountable, and, hopefully, protect other children from being harmed,” Button said.
An investigation by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services and The Texas Health and Human Services Commission Child Care Licensing Division discovered that the employee involved had restrictions on her background check.
In addition, the investigation revealed that the child had been grabbed by the arm and spoken to in a “threatening manner,” and food was withheld as a form of discipline. The toddler was also allowed to walk with a bottle and lie down with it at naptime, which is a violation of the state’s childcare licensing rules.
Investigators observed that children at the daycare were improperly supervised, “running around out of control, even hitting each other, while the caregivers stood around and were disengaged from the children,” the lawsuit alleges.
The daycare was cited for violating five licensing laws in connection with this most recent incident. The facility has been cited on at least nine other occasions for violations since October 2021, according to the news release.
Alyse Brown, the owner of the daycare, said in a written statement that the facility did not break any state regulations.
“Unfortunately, it is difficult to truly know people, and the teacher was a very sweet older lady,” Brown said in the statement. “She never expressed any signs that we should be concerned. We have live stream cameras in every classroom for this very reason.”
Following the investigation, the teacher was fired and banned from the daycare center, according to The Dallas Morning News.