Family photo

Brandon Medlock Jr.

ADDISON — A Dallas couple filed a lawsuit Tuesday alleging that an Addison daycare center used abusive techniques to discipline their three-year-old son.

Brandon Medlock Sr. and Katrina Perkins said they told administrators at what is now the KinderCare Learning Center (formerly Children's World Learning Center) that thumbtacks and other sharp objects had allegedly been used in the backs and shoulders of students as a disciplinary technique.

They said after the initial reports of abuse surfaced, they pulled their son, Brandon Medlock Jr., out of the facility in the 3700 block of Spring Valley Road, and alerted administrators.

The center fired the teacher who was allegedly involved, but Perkins said she then had a startling revelation after visiting the school with her son.

"When we took him up to a bulletin board and asked him, 'What is this?' he pointed straight to the thumbtacks and called it a 'stick-stick,'" Perkins said. "From that moment, we got our other child and they never returned to that daycare facility again."

The civil suit filed by Brandon's parents claims unspecified damages.

Child Protective Services did initiate an investigation of the center last spring. Its report, dated March 21, stated that "caregiver was threatening children with a push pin to control their behavior."

There was no immediate response to the lawsuit from KinderCare's parent company, Knowledge Learning Corporation of Portland, Ore., which operates more than 1,900 centers in 38 states.

E-mail bhawkins@wfaa.com