A Fort Worth family has filed a lawsuit against ARCA Montessori Academy, alleging a teacher encouraged their 4-year-old son to brawl with other children in the classroom, leaving the boy with bruises and scratches.
According to the lawsuit, the boy’s mother arrived to pick him up and found him hysterically crying with visible physical injuries. Staff initially told her that he and another boy had gotten into a brawl and that teachers had to separate them. Unsatisfied with that explanation, the mother demanded to see surveillance footage from the classroom.
“They encouraged a child fight club, and she flipped our child up and threw him down like a ragdoll,” the mother said. “Other parents need to know about this. The daycare needs to be held accountable.”
Attorney Russell Button, who represents the family, said the surveillance video shows a teacher grabbing the boy while encouraging her own son, who was also in the classroom, to hit him.
“This ARCA teacher is holding down our child, and encouraging her own son to come and hit him,” Button said. “So yes, that teacher had her own son in that classroom who instigated the brawl and was trying to fight our child.”
The lawsuit includes photos from the surveillance footage that the family says show their son trying to protect himself, along with a photo appearing to show scratching and bruising on his arm.
Button said another employee in the classroom told a state investigator that her coworker was encouraging the boys to brawl.
“They put that ticking time b[]mb in that classroom time after time after time,” Button said.
The state has cited the daycare three times in connection with the incident, noting that the caregiver involved “has a pattern of yelling at children when frustrated.” She is no longer employed at the facility.
The lawsuit also points to a history of safety disputes at ARCA Montessori Academy, which has accumulated 16 citations since opening in 2024, including incidents of children being left unattended outside or alone in a classroom.
“Thankfully we do have that video footage that brought this instance to light,” Button said. “We look forward to learning about what else was going on.”
