A Texas daycare is being sued by a family claiming it ran a toddler “fight club”

A family in Fort Worth, Texas, is suing a daycare run by Arka Risinger Educators LLC for allegedly running a toddler “fight club.” A timeline of events was put together by state investigators for the lawsuit using the daycare’s security cameras, which captured the alleged events.

The timeline put together begins at 4:30 PM, which is when the daycare combines classes together as morning teachers leave for the day. The focus of this lawsuit is a four-year-old victim whose name has been kept private. In the filings, a substitute teacher is being charged with escalating a physical altercation and then allegedly assaulting the child.

What security cameras show what happened at the daycare

Cameras at the daycare show the events alleged in the lawsuit. In this classroom, the teachers involved in the incident are Johnson and Del Luna. Del Luna is the teacher of this particular classroom, and the incident began when a child hits the four-year-old victim while Del Luna’s back is turned, starting a fight while she’s looking away.

Del Luna, when she sees the fight, steps in and picks up the child who struck first, who happens to be Johnson’s son. Johnson enters the classroom and takes her son, setting him down, and stays to watch the class to give Del Luna time to step out.

This is when events seem to escalate according to the investigation and camera footage. Johnson is seen grabbing the four-year-old, shaking him, and then appears to push him away before speaking to her son, who then heads for the four-year-old again but ends up falling himself. This leads to another round of Johnson grabbing and appearing to yell at the child again before throwing him on the ground.

At this point, the cameras show Del Luna returning to the classroom and watching instead of intervening. In a different daycare incident, teachers kept students’ art to sell it to the families as merchandise.

The victim sustained bruises and now has anxiety about attending daycare

When the victim was picked up by his parents in a state of hysteria, they were allegedly told that the kids got into a fight and staff ended it. The child had scratches, bruises, and now reportedly suffers from post-trauma headaches and anxiety about attending daycare, which is often the only choice for parents unable to stay home while working. Digging deeper revealed the security footage and the teachers’ actions, leading to the lawsuit.

Texas Health and Human Services Commission’s Child-Care Licensing Division performed an independent investigation of the daycare and found other violations, which came to a total of 16 safety violations since 2024. These include failures to protect children and the use of prohibited disciplinary measures.

No criminal charges have been brought against Johnson, and the daycare states that she’s no longer employed there.

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