Daycare teachers used push pins to discipline, Calif. lawsuit alleges
LOS ANGELES - Two teachers at an Agoura Hills, Calif. daycare center are accused of disciplining young boys by pressing push pins into their legs, a lawsuit alleges, reports CBS Los Angeles.
The suit was filed Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court by four mothers against Tutor Time of Agoura Hills alleging negligence, negligent supervision and hiring, failure to report abuse, assault and battery, breach of contract and both intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, according to the station.
The two teachers named in the lawsuit were identified as Rosa Nepomuseno and Jessica Morales.
According to the complaint, the women -- identified only as Nicole Z., Kim M., Debbie S. and Krista L. -- all enrolled children under the age of 3 at the center in 2013 and 2014, in the community about 30 miles from downtown Los Angeles.
The women allege Nepomuseno and Morales "had a custom and practice of regularly using push pins to discipline toddler boys in their classrooms," according to the suit, which adds that the pins were pressed deep enough to inflict pain and injury.
"If a boy was deemed inattentive or failed to follow directions, these teachers would stick a push pin into the child's legs," the complaint says, according to the station. "This practice was so commonplace at Tutor Time that the defendants had given it a name; they called it 'pica pica'."
The lawsuit alleges that a daughter of one of the mothers was "made to watch the defendants inflict this brutal punishment on her twin brother, which resulted in severe mental and emotional injuries to her."
An investigation by the Los Angeles County Department of Social Services found serious violations had occurred at the facility, but that the "defendants again hid this information from the parent plaintiffs," the suit states.
A woman who answered the phone at the facility and identified herself as the manager said the center has been under new ownership since August, reports the station. She declined further comment.