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.
SOURCE The Button Law Firm
