Family represented by The Button Law Firm aims
to hold Children's Courtyard accountable for two neglect incidents
that endangered 3-year-old's life
NEW
BRAUNFELS, Texas, May 21, 2024
/PRNewswire/ -- The mother of a 3-year-old has filed a daycare
neglect lawsuit against a Children's Courtyard daycare center in
New Braunfels claiming her son's fever was ignored, causing
him to suffer a febrile seizure in April
2022. Karina Lebato
alleges daycare employees at the facility on Hunters
Village Drive could tell the child was ill but did not notify her,
as required by state childcare laws, or take the necessary steps to
care for him.
In her complaint against the center, Lebato claims a caregiver
used their arm to check the toddler's temperature instead of a
thermometer. Because of this poor judgment, the caregiver failed to
catch the child was running a severe fever. When Lebato picked up
her son later that day, she found his eyes and skin were red, and
he was hot to the touch. The complaint states that on the way to an
urgent care center, the toddler began experiencing a seizure and
lost consciousness. Doctors determined the toddler had a high fever
of 103.5 degrees, which caused him to lose consciousness and start
convulsing, according to the suit.
This was not the first time Children's Courtyard, which touts
itself as a nurturing and safe facility, failed Lebato and her son.
In her lawsuit, Lebato also alleges that caregivers
left her son on the playground for an undisclosed amount of time in
June 2020. When parents arrived to
pick up their children after work, they found the toddler alone and
crying by the playground gate, per the complaint. Before that, no
caregivers at Children's Courtyard noticed the young toddler was
missing from his classroom, and the center was unable to determine
if the child had been forgotten on the playground or if he had left
his classroom on his own.
Following this first neglect incident, the Texas Health and
Human Services Child-Care Licensing division cited Children's
Courtyard for not complying with supervision standards. The suit
states the agency also provided technical assistance to the
facility to prevent future neglect incidents, but that assistance
did not help Lebato's son when he was sick in April 2022.
"Shame on Children's Courtyard for repeatedly ignoring safety
standards and putting my son's life in danger," says Lebato. "My
3-year-old and other children in our community deserve better. I
want to make sure no other family experiences what Children's
Courtyard put our family through."
The daycare center received 21 violations between December 2020 and December
2023 for failing to comply with daycare laws, ranging from
caregivers not completing required training to not properly
supervising children and not keeping hazardous items out of little
ones' reach. Children's Courtyard was also in the spotlight in
September 2020 after a 2-year-old
passed away at a second New
Braunfels facility located on South Walnut Avenue.
"Children's Courtyard has displayed a pattern of failing Ms.
Lebato and her young son by ignoring numerous daycare laws," says
Russell Button of The Button Law
Firm, the Texas daycare injury
lawyer representing Lebato. "We have zero tolerance when a facility
endangers the well-being of a child. Both traumatic incidents of
neglect that this poor child experienced under the watch of
Children's Courtyard were easily preventable."
The case is Karina Lebato,
Individually and as next friend of T.L., a minor child, vs. The
Children's Courtyard, Inc., Cause No. C2024-0911D in the
District Court of Comal County,
Texas. A copy of the complaint can be accessed here.
About the Button Law Firm
The Button Law Firm
(buttonlawfirm.com) is a Texas-based personal injury law firm that
advocates for children and their families in meaningful litigation
to make local communities safer. The firm focuses on daycare and
child-related injuries such as abuse and neglect cases, bottle
warmer burns, traumatic brain injuries, and catastrophic injuries.
With attorneys in Dallas,
Houston, and Midland, The Button Law Firm helps families
move forward across the Lone Star State.
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SOURCE The Button Law Firm