The parents of one of five children physically abused by former employees of Bellaire Learning Center today filed suit in Bossier District Court seeking unspecified damages from one of the workers and the church-owned day care facility.

Jessica and Stephen Ponder named Tammi Lynn Hilliard and Bellaire Baptist Church of Bossier City, doing business as Bellaire Learning Center, as defendants. Attorney Craig Smith represents the Ponder family.

Additional lawsuits are anticipated from two other families.

The Ponders accuse Hilliard of throwing “hard and heavy toys” at their son’s face two separate times in June. The first throw missed but then Hilliard launched another toy, striking the boy, Jace, in the face near an eye.

The act “disparaged and denigrated him in front of his friends and classmates” and Hilliard used a “prohibited method of discipline upon him,” the lawsuit alleges.

Furthermore, Hilliard engaged in a “pattern of conduct and abuse” while Jace was under her care and control, and subjected him and other children to an “environment of fear and intimidation.”

The lawsuit also states Bellaire is “independently liable for its own negligent” acts and omissions. Among the allegations are failure to properly supervise its employees, review video recording of employees interacting with the children, perform background checks on its workers, have policies in place to monitor video recordings and determine if Hilliard had appropriate mental or emotional fitness for her job duties.

Randy Harper, Bellaire Baptist pastor, was not immediately available for comment this afternoon on the lawsuit. His secretary said the church has not been served with a copy.

Hilliard, 28, pleaded guilty in January to 10 counts of simple battery. The charge is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in prison on each count. Hilliard will be sentenced April 16.

Similar accusations were filed against another employee, Doris Williams, 49, whose criminal case has been reset in Bossier District Court. She is charged with five counts of failure to report child abuse and three misdemeanor counts of simple battery.

The arrests happened after Jessica Ponder reported the abuse of her then 2-year-old son. She took her story to The Times in September after growing frustrated with what she perceived as a lack of interaction from church leaders concerning her son’s injury.

Jessica Ponder said she had to take the lead in reviewing surveillance cameras to determine how her son was injured. No one on the staff, she said, volunteered to view the recordings, even after she told them her son accused a worker of throwing a toy at him. .

After sitting through hours of video recordings gleaned from the classroom cameras, Jessica Ponder saw the toy-throwing incident.

The video, also shared with the newspaper, shows Hilliard sitting Indian-style on the floor and brushing another girl’s hair. Hilliard picks up a toy and pitches it at Jace, missing him the first time. So she launches it again, hitting him in the face. Jace immediately grabs his eye and walks to a corner of the room, where he appears to be crying.

Other child victims also are identified on the recordings. Two of those children belong to Christina and John Hennessy and Candice and Chris Dison, who also went public with their complaints against the day care and its workers.

Bellaire fired Hilliard and Williams. And the facility also implemented changes to its operations to ensure there is no repeat occurrence. Among them, employment of an administrative staff member whose responsibility is to monitor and perform routine checks of classrooms and oversee the hiring process, which was expanded to include deeper background checks and multiple interviews of prospective employees. Parents also are given the opportunity to observe their children through the video surveillance system. Parents can log online and view their child, but not others.