A group of California parents have filed a lawsuit against a daycare center accusing two instructors of pricking thumb tacks into the legs of their young children as a . form a discipline and threatening the toddlers to keep them quiet about the abuse. The civil suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court Tuesday, says . the teachers involved in the abuse, which occurred between 2013 . and 2014 at a Tutor Time franchise, were fired after their . actions came to the attention of management, but that the . daycare center concealed their actions from parents. The suit follows an investigation by state authorities who . cited the center in Agoura Hills, west of Los Angeles, after . finding at least one instructor 'used tactics to intimate and . scare children,' according to documents from the state . Department of Social Services. Four California mothers have filed a lawsuit against the Tutor Time daycare center in Agoura Hills, accusing instructors there of pricking their children's legs with pins as a way of discipline . The lawsuit filed on behalf of four parents, identified in court papers as Nicole Z., Kim M., Debbie S. and Krista L., says their 2- and 3-year-old children suffered cruel and unusual abuse in a recurring . practice known at the center as 'pica pica,' which translated . from Spanish means 'prick prick.' 'If a boy was deemed inattentive or failed to follow . directions, these teachers would stick a pin into the child's . legs,' said the lawsuit, which was filed on behalf of the parents by personal injury attorney Robert Clayton. 'The push pin was pressed deep enough into the legs to . inflict pain and injury on the child,' the court papers read. The lawsuit accuses the two instructors, named as Rosa Nepomuseno and Jessica Morales, and the operators of . the center of negligence, failure to report abuse, assault and . battery, breach of contract and other wrongdoing and seeks an . unspecified amount in damages. Caseworkers from the state Department of Social Service visited the daycare center last May and uncovered evidence that serious violations had occurred there, reported 7Online. As a result of the investigation, three Tutor Time workers were fired, including one who knew about the abuse but failed to report it. A former worker told the station that the classroom for 2-year-olds was overcrowded, with two instructors having to look after about two dozen toddlers. The lawsuit alleges that the sister of one of the alleged victims was “made to watch the defendants inflict this brutal punishment on her twin brother, which resulted in severe mental and emotional injuries to her. In a phone interview with Daily Mail Wednesday, attorney Robert Clayton said the first plaintiff in the lawsuit found out about the alleged abuse a year ago from a terminated Tutor Time teacher, who told the woman about the push pins, not knowing that she had a son at the daycare center. The attorney said when he contacted the management at Tutor Time, ‘they weren’t denying it happened, but they didn’t think it was a big deal.’ The boys’ families, however, were of a different opinion. Clayton said: ‘They were shocked. They could not fathom this had happened to their children, especially in a place they trusted…They made the parents feel very safe.’ The lawyer representing the four mothers said whenever parents would notice scrapes and pokes on the toddlers’ legs and mention it to instructors at Tutor Time, the standard response was, ‘they’re just boys.’ But according to Clayton, the teachers named as defendants in the lawsuit threatened the children to keep quiet about the pin pricks. Painful punishment: The lawsuit alleges 2- and 3-year-old children suffered cruel and unusual abuse in a recurring practice known at the center as 'pica pica,' which translated from Spanish means 'prick prick' Clayton claimed that whenever one of the instructors would see the toddlers approach other staffers at the daycare center, she would tap her pocket containing thumb pins to warn them not to say anything about the ‘pica pica’ ritual. The attorney said his clients’ children have been receiving counselling to help them deal with nightmares and bed-wetting allegedly resulting from the trauma. ‘They are frightened every time they see anything sharp,’ the lawyer told Daily Mail. The law partner at the LA-based firm Taylor and Ring further said his clients want to see change. ‘They want to see that this never happens to another child,’ said Clayton. Clayton said he has been getting calls from other parents, suggesting that there could be more victims out there. Lydia Cisaruk, a spokeswoman for Tutor Time, told Reuters in an . email that the company acquired the center from its franchise . operator last August but the purchase was unrelated to the . allegations of abuse. 'Before the acquisition, this matter was addressed by the . franchise owner/operator in conjunction with the licensing . authorities,' she said. 'Staffing changes were made prior to the . school coming under corporate ownership last year.' Tutor Time as a corporate entity was not served as a . defendant in the lawsuit, Cisaruk said. The suit names as defendants the two instructors and Little . Scholars Inc, which Cisaruk said operated the center as a . franchisee.
Four California mothers are suing Tutor Time daycare center in Agoura Hills for alleged abuse . Lawsuit claims two instructors, Rosa Nepomuseno and Jessica Morales, pushed thumb pins into legs of 2- and 3-year-old boys for being inattentive . The disciplinary measure was known at the center as 'pica pica,' which translated from Spanish means 'prick prick'