close
close
bsxonair

Mother sues Texas daycare for $1 million over sexual abuse

Gillberg
Mother sues Texas daycare for million over sexual abuse

A Texas daycare center is accused of failing to report the sexual abuse of a four-year-old child by a caregiver, a lawsuit says. The caregiver has been arrested.



According to a lawsuit in Texas, a mother assumed that daycare staff would press charges when she watched surveillance footage showing her four-year-old son being sexually abused by a caregiver.

The footage shows Efain Jesus Bonilla inappropriately touching the four-year-old boy while he was taking a nap, according to the lawsuit filed on June 10.

Despite the mother’s belief, the Dallas-area daycare never reported the Jan. 6, 2023, incident to the Department of Family and Protective Services, even though it was required to do so, the complaint says. Bonilla continued to work with the children.

Click to resize

According to the lawsuit, the four-year-old’s mother called the DFPS herself. Now she is demanding more than a million dollars in emotional damages.

The mother’s call to authorities sparked a state investigation into By The Barnyard Gate Daycare in Sachse, and Bonilla was eventually fired, the complaint says. The investigation confirmed the abuse allegations, the lawsuit says.

McClatchy News could not reach By The Barnyard Gate for comment on June 18.

Bonilla was arrested and charged with sexual abuse of a child, the lawsuit states. He was released on bail, according to WFAA.

Information about Bonilla’s lawyer was not available.

“I am heartbroken over the abuse my child experienced at By the Barnyard Gate and angry that the school allowed this to happen to him,” the mother said in a June 17 press release.

To protect the child’s identity, McClatchy News is not releasing the mother’s name.

As a result of the investigation, the facility was prosecuted twice, and according to the lawsuit, there had also been previous incidents of triviality against the daycare center.

Between 2019 and 2023, the facility was issued 20 warnings for various reasons, including failing to adequately supervise children and failing to install required safety alarms in transport vehicles, the complaint states.

From The Barnyard Gate, “24 Defects identified from 4,095 standards,” according to the Texas Department of Health and Human Services.

“My son’s innocence should have been protected at this school,” the mother said in the press release.

Sachse is located about 25 miles northeast of Dallas.

Profile picture of Kate Linderman

Kate Linderman covers real-time news for McClatchy. Previously, she was a public affairs editor at the Chicago Tribune and a freelance reporter. Kate is a graduate of DePaul University, where she studied journalism and legal and public affairs communications.

Related Posts