Therapist threw autistic 7-year-old against wall at North Texas center, lawsuit alleges
A behavioral therapy center for children with autism faces a lawsuit by parents who say their child was physically abused at the center, according to the complaint filed Monday in a Tarrant County district court.
An employee of ABA Interactive threw the non-verbal autistic child against a wall in June, in an attack that was captured on video, according to the suit.
North Richland Hills police said in a news release Tuesday that they are investigating what happened and are ready to charge at least one person. Police heard from the 7-year-old boy’s mother that he was assaulted by a therapist at ABA Interactive, and a warrant has been issued on second-degree felony charges of injury to a child.
Police told the Star-Telegram the suspect has not been arrested yet and they are not releasing the name of the suspect until he or she is in custody. Further investigation revealed there had been several previously unreported complaints against the same employee, according to police.
The lawsuit says attorneys believe there have been at least two other incidents of violence against children at the facility that went unreported to parents and authorities.
ABA Interactive, located at 8225 Mid Cities Blvd. in North Richland Hills, did not respond to a request for comment from the Star-Telegram.
The parents learned about the child’s injury when the father went to pick his son up from ABA Interactive on June 20, according to the suit. But while video evidence would later show that the child was thrown against a wall, the lawsuit says the father was initially told his son had inflicted injuries on himself during a “behavioral episode.” A photo included in the suit shows a large scratch and bruising on the child’s face.
The father couldn’t get any information on what triggered the alleged episode but was asked by the center to sign an incident report that said the boy hurt himself, according to the suit. When he got home, though, he and his wife had a conversation where they both recalled that their son had never been violent toward himself or others.
Later on, the mother contacted ABA Interactive and asked to see video of what happened, according to the suit. She said she wanted to know what to look out for in the future in case her son tried to harm himself again. The center’s owner and director said she would have to review the video herself to determine if the parents could watch it, citing HIPAA concerns.
The mother was eventually told she couldn’t review the video because other children were in it and another parent didn’t want the video released, according to the suit. The center’s owner later showed up at the family’s home with a licensed therapist on the phone and told the boy’s parents that their son had a behavioral episode and hit an employee, the suit states.
She told the parents the employee “gently restrained” the boy and another employee came to help control him, and that in the video the camera couldn’t see what happened when the boy hurt himself, according to the complaint. The family wanted to know why those details weren’t in the incident report the father signed and why the center couldn’t tell the parents how the boy got hurt.
Two therapists ended up contacting the family on separate occasions, with one saying that nobody was being allowed to see the video and another saying they’d obtained a copy of the video, according to the complaint. When the parents finally saw the video, they saw the boy pat a therapist on the leg. The action wasn’t aggressive and was just meant to get attention, according to the suit.
The video then showed the second therapist mentioned by ABA Interactive rush toward the boy and pick him up by his collar as he was flailing, according to the suit. As she pushed the boy into a corner, the therapist stepped on another child with autism, the video allegedly shows. She then slammed the 7-year-old against the wall with her hands around his neck, the suit states.
That employee was not fired but was reassigned to home therapy, according to the suit.
“It’s every parent’s worst nightmare,” Wesley Gould, the family’s attorney, said in a news release about the suit. “This child doesn’t have the ability to vocalize what was happening to him at that place. Someone has to speak for him and that’s what we’re determined to do.”
The parents accused the center of negligence and trying to cover up the abuse and are demanding a jury trial, seeking over $1 million in damages.
North Richland Hills police said that they’re continuing to investigate the center in collaboration with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulations “regarding potential violations for failure to report child abuse.”
According to its website, the center provides applied behavior analysis for adults and children with special needs.
The North Richland Hills Police Department said it encourages anyone with information related to this investigation to call 817-427-7030.
This story was originally published August 6, 2024 at 12:16 PM.