Represented by The Button Law Firm, parents say surveillance footage and state investigations revealed repeated mistreatment of toddlers entrusted to Camden Hill Montessori
DALLAS, Feb. 3, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Five North Texas families filed a lawsuit against Camden Hill Montessori, a daycare center in the Dallas suburb of Carrollton, alleging caregivers repeatedly subjected their 1-year-old children to aggressive handling and inappropriate discipline tactics more than 140 times while in the center’s care.
The lawsuit, filed in a Dallas County Civil District Court, claims the daycare center failed to protect toddlers from ongoing mistreatment by caregivers and then concealed the truth from parents when injuries occurred.
According to the lawsuit, Jamus and Alezandra Hernandez were initially told their 16-month-old son was “sitting weird” and that his leg injury in June 2025 resulted from routine toddler play. However, when a doctor at a local emergency room diagnosed the boy with a severe contusion to his right leg, an injury that left him unable to walk without limping for several days, the Hernandez family followed up by requesting a review of the surveillance footage from their son’s classroom at Camden Hill.
Per the lawsuit, the parents discovered their son had been aggressively handled by caregivers. Footage revealed their son injured his leg when a caregiver grabbed him by one arm, lifted his full body weight using only that arm, carried him across the room while he was suspended, and then released him from her grip at chest height, dropping him to the floor. The Camden Hill caregiver then left the little boy crying out in pain while she repeated this same action with another child in the classroom, per the complaint.
“Parents trusted this daycare to care for their toddlers, who are too young to speak for themselves,” says daycare injury attorney Russell Button of The Button Law Firm, the firm representing all five families. “Instead, they discovered their children were being mishandled, disciplined in prohibited ways, and injured while under the daycare’s supervision. This lawsuit is about protecting vulnerable children and seeking accountability to make sure this does not happen to other families.”
Jamus Hernandez says the experience of having his young child injured by caregivers at Camden Hill has permanently changed how his family views childcare safety.
“We sent our son to daycare believing he would be safe and cared for,” he says. “Seeing what actually happened on video was devastating. No parent should ever have to watch their child be hurt by the people they trusted to protect them. We are speaking out so this never happens to another family.”
According to the complaint, what began as an inquiry into one toddler’s injury expanded into more incidents of daycare misconduct when five days of footage was reviewed. The lawsuit alleges surveillance footage from Camden Hill Montessori revealed more than 140 instances of inappropriate discipline and aggressive handling involving toddlers over that five-day period. The mistreatment by caregivers included:
- Covering children’s mouths while they cried
- Falsifying incident reports to conceal injuries
- Pulling hair and pinching
- Slamming children onto floors and changing tables
- Throwing objects at children
- Yanking toddlers up by their arms and dropping them to the floor
- Yelling at children
While most of the incidents appeared to be perpetrated by one caregiver, the lawsuit alleges that in at least 14 instances of mistreatment, another caregiver was present and failed to intervene or report the illegal conduct.
An independent investigation conducted by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission Child-Care Licensing Division and the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services concluded that the daycare broke nine different childcare laws.
Following the incidents and investigation, the daycare center closed in October 2025.
“What makes this especially troubling,” Button adds, “is that these incidents were easily preventable. Proper caregiver supervision and intervention could have stopped this cruel behavior at the hands of caregivers long before multiple children were harmed.”
The case is Jamus Hernandez and Alezandra Hernandez, individually as parents and next friends of J.H., a minor child; Caleb Brian and Lianfei Brian, individually as parents and next friends of E.B., a minor child; Emory Showalter and Hannah Showalter, individually as parents and next friends of O.S., a minor child; Sage Baker and Amanda Tabor, individually as parents and next friends of R.B., a minor child; and James Kirk and Mackenzi Kirk, individually as parents and next friends of C.K., a minor child; vs. Camden Hill, LLC d/b/a Camden Hill Montessori; and Melissa Rodriguez, Cause No. DC-26-01702 in the 191st Civil District Court. 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 dedicated to protecting children. The firm represents kids in daycare and child injury cases to help families achieve life-changing results and justice against bad daycare centers, schools, and companies that abuse children and neglect their safety. With offices in Dallas, Houston, and Midland, The Button Law Firm stands by families across the Lone Star State, working to hold negligent organizations accountable and make communities safer for every child.
SOURCE The Button Law Firm
