A mother claims in a lawsuit that a caregiver forcefully pulled, lifted, and swung her daughter by the arms before letting her fall onto a nap mat at a Texas daycare center.
Janese Milivojevic has filed a lawsuit against The Children’s Courtyard, alleging that she observed caregiver abuse at the Austin center through its live surveillance feed.
“My heart sank when I saw my daughter and other children being harmed at The Children’s Courtyard by the adults who were supposed to protect them,” said Milivojevic. “My daughter was only at The Children’s Courtyard for two days. Working parents should not have to balance doing their job and watching a daycare center’s livestream to ensure their child is not being harmed.”
Attorney Russell Button, representing Milivojevic and another family in distinct lawsuits against the daycare center, stated that ongoing safety issues are putting vulnerable children at risk.
“The lack of concern for abuse allegations for one child led to another child being harmed,” Button said. “Texas has daycare safety laws in place to hold negligent facilities like The Children’s Courtyard accountable.”
A spokesperson for The Children’s Courtyard has yet to reply to a comment request from Law&Crime.
A lawsuit claims that the abuse occurred on May 18, 2023, when a mother left her 18-month-old daughter, referred to as “N.M.” in court documents, at Children’s Courtyard for the second time.
According to court documents, while her daughter was at daycare, a mother monitored her through the live-feed video surveillance and was shocked by what she witnessed.
“[Milivojevic’s] worst nightmare became a reality when her one-year-old daughter N.M. was inappropriately disciplined by an unqualified, untrained, and unsupervised Children’s Courtyard employee causing 18-month-old N.M. to suffer serious physical, emotional, and mental injuries because of the inexcusable failures of Children’s Courtyard,” the complaint said.
While observing the live stream from the daycare center, Milivojevic noticed an employee from Children’s Courtyard push a young girl, resulting in the child falling to the ground, according to court documents. An employee at The Children’s Courtyard walks away, leaving the young girl in tears on the floor, failing to ensure her well-being after pushing her down.
“As Milivojevic was watching the live feed of the daycare center, “she sees the Children’s Courtyard employee push a little girl, causing the little girl to fall to the ground,” court documents said. “The Children’s Courtyard employee then walks away leaving the little girl crying on the floor without checking to make sure the little girl was okay after pushing her to the ground.”
An employee at The Children’s Courtyard pulled the nap mat, resulting in N.M. losing her balance while seated and falling face-first onto the mat, according to court documents.
The lawsuit claims that the employee forcefully seized N.M. by her left arm, lifted her up, and threw her onto another child who is lying nearby. According to court documents, the employee removes N.M. from atop the other child, places her back onto her nap mat, and then covers her completely with a blanket.
New footage shows a teacher lifting a child by the arms and swinging him across the classroom before dropping him onto his nap mat, according to court documents. The teacher lifts the child by his arms and places him on the nap mat, positioning him on his stomach. The lawsuit states that she covers him completely with a blanket.
Milivojevic quickly took her daughter out of the daycare and informed the management at Children’s Courtyard about the incident, who promised to look into it.
A week later, Milivojevic got a reply from Kirstin Northington, the director of Children’s Courtyard at that time. She stated that “corrective actions were taken for this incident” and that she had “addressed all issues with staff as well as set up training to go over positive guidance and discipline,” according to court documents.
The lawsuit stated that both employees remained employed, and the center failed to notify the authorities about the incident. In contrast, it was Milivojevic who took action.
On July 27, 2023, two months later, the same employee from Children’s Courtyard who was previously observed by Milivojevic inappropriately handling a child was seen mistreating the same boy again. The Children’s Courtyard employee was terminated only after the state conducted an investigation into the incident that occurred in July, according to court documents.
The lawsuit states that Children’s Courtyard has faced multiple citations from the state of Texas for not meeting the required safety standards for its operation and caregivers. The Texas Health and Human Services Commission Child Care Licensing division is conducting an independent investigation into the incident that occurred in May, according to the document.