The family had entrusted their young daughter to a licensed child-care center in Grand Prairie, in Dallas County. She was in the center’s care during the day, with her family trusting the staff to watch her and keep her safe.
According to the family, the center first told them another child had “cut” the girl’s hair. It was only when the mother sat down and talked with her daughter that she understood what had actually happened: another child had grabbed the girl’s braid and ripped it out of her scalp. The family says that is not a haircut but a painful physical injury: the kind that can break the skin, damage the hair follicles, and leave a young child shaken.
The family contends no staff member witnessed the incident or was close enough to stop it, and that when the mother explained what her daughter had described, a staff member responded in a way that made clear no one actually knew what had happened. According to the family, the center’s written report described a haircut rather than what occurred, no one appears to have examined the child’s scalp or documented the injury, and the girl was sent back into the same classroom as the child who hurt her.
The center is a licensed Texas child-care facility serving infants, toddlers, pre-kindergarten, and school-age children. Texas child-care rules require centers to supervise children at all times, to stay close enough to see and hear what is happening, to respond to and accurately document injuries, and to take steps to keep a hurt child safe afterward. The family contends the center fell short on each of these: no one watching closely enough to prevent or even witness the injury, a report written on an assumption rather than what happened, and no protective plan after the fact.
The family also says they received shifting explanations about whether video of the incident exists. They were first told there was only live viewing, then told footage is kept briefly before going to leadership, and so far they have never been shown whether any recording survives. We have demanded that the center preserve all footage and electronic records, and we are pursuing its supervision and staffing records, its incident documentation, and its account of how this happened. The family further contends the center was already aware the other child had a history of aggressive behavior, and we are investigating that as part of what the center knew and should have done.
We represent the family and have placed the center on formal notice of the claim, including under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, and have demanded that it preserve its video footage and records before anything is lost. We are pursuing claims for the center’s negligence and its failure to provide the safe, properly supervised, and accurately documented care it represented. We are prepared to file suit if the center does not resolve the matter.
A daycare does not get to take a family’s money to keep their child safe, let another child tear a braid from her scalp with no one watching, write it up as a haircut, and put her right back next to the child who hurt her. We intend to find out exactly what happened and to hold this center accountable.
We represent the family and have placed the center on formal notice of the claim, including under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, and have demanded that it preserve its video footage and records before anything is lost. We are pursuing claims for the center’s negligence and its failure to provide the safe, properly supervised, and accurately documented care it represented. We are prepared to file suit if the center does not resolve the matter.
A daycare does not get to take a family’s money to keep their child safe, let another child tear a braid from her scalp with no one watching, write it up as a haircut, and put her right back next to the child who hurt her. We intend to find out exactly what happened and to hold this center accountable.
