Parents sue daycare for over $1 million after teacher allegedly turned classroom into toddler “fight club”  

Parents send their children to daycare expecting teachers to stop playground fights, not allegedly referee them. A Texas couple is now suing a Fort Worth daycare for more than $1 million after surveillance footage showed a substitute teacher encouraging her four-year-old son to fight their child.

Heather and Richard Harris filed the lawsuit on September 4 against Arka Risinger Educators LLC, which operates Arka Montessori Academy of Risinger. The complaint centers on an April 27 incident involving their four-year-old son, identified in court documents only as U.H. 

According to reports from FOX 4, U.H. had been moved into a combined classroom late that afternoon as teachers began leaving. What reportedly happened next was disturbing enough for the family’s attorney, Russell Button, to describe the daycare as looking and feeling like a “child fight club.” As much as that sounds like a prequel to the 1999 blockbuster, this is sadly real, not reel. 

Surveillance footage showed much more than a playground fight

The lawsuit alleges another four-year-old boy initially struck U.H. while teacher Jacqueline De Luna was distracted. She reportedly separated the children before Chynia Johnson, the substitute teacher and the other child’s mother, entered the classroom.

Johnson’s son allegedly pushed U.H. in the chest, prompting U.H. to raise his hands. Rather than simply separating them, the lawsuit claims Johnson grabbed U.H. by the arm, shook him, and shoved him away before speaking to her son and stepping aside.

Her son seemingly charged at U.H. again. After the other boy fell, Johnson was said to have grabbed U.H. with both arms, shook him, and screamed in his face.

Things reportedly escalated further when De Luna returned. The complaint alleges Johnson dragged U.H. toward her son while encouraging him to kick and hit the child. Johnson then held U.H. by the wrist and swept his leg from underneath him, causing him to fall onto the hardwood floor while De Luna watched without intervening.

U.H.’s mother said she arrived to find her son crying hysterically. Staff initially told her the children had fought, and teachers separated them, but Harris requested to see the surveillance footage herself. That footage, she said, showed something very different from the version she’d been given. Surveillance footage has also played a key role in other recent child safety cases, including one involving a grandmother who reportedly left an infant in a hot car.

The daycare had already attracted regulators’ attention

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission’s Child-Care Licensing Division investigated and cited the daycare for prohibited disciplinary methods, including grabbing, pulling, yelling, and physical restraint. Regulators also cited it for failing to ensure caregivers protected children in their care.

FOX 4 reported that the facility had accumulated 16 safety citations since opening in January 2024, including previous incidents involving children allegedly being left unattended. However, an August 20 inspection found no deficiencies.

Johnson is no longer employed by the daycare, and no criminal charges have been filed. The Harris family’s lawsuit seeks more than $1 million in compensation and exemplary damages, alleging negligence, gross negligence, and premises liability.

Daycares have landed in hot water with parents for some bizarre reasons, including one that withheld children’s artwork to sell it back as merchandise, but the story of U.H. crosses a line that no one would’ve imagined in a supposed child-friendly environment. 

The parents say U.H. suffered bruises, scratches, headaches, and lasting anxiety following the incident. Daycare cameras are usually there to give parents peace of mind. In this case, they may instead become some of the most important witnesses in the room. The defendants may have instigated a horrific “child fight club”, but the parents protected their son by showing them what “parent fight club” can do when legal papers are served instead of punches. 

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