The families of three small children are suing a Moon Township day care, alleging that a former employee there improperly punished them, including pulling down their pants and underwear in front of other children and employees.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court, includes claims for negligence, assault and battery. It names as a defendant Pittsburgh Gym Partners, doing business as Carol Leone Gymnastics and Daycare and Rebecca Leon, who previously worked there.

Messages left at the facility late Thursday were not immediately returned. A message left with Leon’s attorney Thursday evening was also not immediately returned.

According to the lawsuit, Leon was an employee at the center on Thorn Run Road and worked as a caretaker for 3-year-olds.

The lawsuit alleges that in July 2021, a 3-year-old boy at the center was playing with a friend on a jungle gym when they had an argument.

Lean is accused of pulling down the boys pants and underwear, exposing his naked body to about 20 children and another caretaker, according to the complaint.

The boy tried to pull his pants up, but Leon continued to pull them down, the lawsuit said, forcing him to stand exposed for several minutes.

Later that day, when the boy was fussy at naptime, the complaint continued, Leon spanked him in front of the classroom and another caretaker, who stepped in to stop Leon from further harming the boy.

The lawsuit alleges that no incident report, or Childline report, was filed by the childcare facility.

Around that same time, Leon pulled down the pants of another 3-year-old as a form of punishment, leaving the child exposed for several minutes in front of other children. The child was arguing with another about a toy.

Again, the lawsuit said, no incident reports were filed.

In the third instance, the complaint said that on Aug. 2, 2021, a 3-year-old was restless at naptime, and Leon punished him by purposefully flipping his cot over, causing him to be knocked to the ground. The cot struck the boy in the face, causing a black eye, the lawsuit said.

In that instance, the lawsuit accuses Leon of falsifying an incident report by saying the boy flipped the cot himself.

On July 30, 2021, the lawsuit said another caretaker at the facility who had witnessed Leon’s behavior reported her to management.

The complaint said management “refused to acknowledge this information unless there was another witness” to what happened.

Leon was not removed from the classroom or placed on leave, the lawsuit said, and management did not tell the caretaker to file a Childline report.

The day after the incident involving the cot, the lawsuit said, Leon was removed from the 3-year-old room but was neither sent home nor suspended.

On Aug. 4, 2021, the other caretaker in that room told the families of the affected children about what happened.

They removed their children and contacted Moon Area police.

According to the lawsuit, Leon was charged on Sept. 8, 2021, with one count of simple assault and three counts of harassment.

On March 1, according to court records, she pleaded guilty at a magistrate’s office to one count of summary harassment.

“During her plea colloquy, defendant Rebecca Leon admitted under oath that each and every allegation against her in the criminal complaint was true, and she was not disputing the veracity or truthfulness of the allegations of simple assault and harassment against her,” the lawsuit said.

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