{"id":256666,"date":"2026-04-19T08:53:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T08:53:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/256666\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T08:53:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T08:53:24","slug":"nearly-80-students-forced-into-400-push-ups-at-school-many-diagnosed-with-permanent-kidney-damage-lawsuit-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/256666\/","title":{"rendered":"Nearly 80 students forced into 400+ push-ups at school, many diagnosed with permanent kidney damage, lawsuit says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">SAN ANGELO, Texas. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kwtx.com\/2026\/04\/13\/san-angelo-charter-school-sued-over-school-discipline-that-forced-20-student-hospitalizations\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.kwtx.com\/2026\/04\/13\/san-angelo-charter-school-sued-over-school-discipline-that-forced-20-student-hospitalizations\/\">KWTX<\/a>\/Gray News) &#8211; A dozen families in Texas filed a lawsuit against a charter school after nearly 20 students suffered potentially life-threatening injuries in February.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The lawsuit alleges that on Feb. 25, 2026, the head football coach at Texas Leadership Charter Academy in San Angelo ordered about 80 students to perform \u201ccontinuous, whistle-driven push-ups for an entire class period \u2014 about 45 minutes or more \u2014 without water, rest or breaks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The students estimated they were forced to do between 300 and 420 push-ups while five coaches walked among them \u201cberating any child who showed signs of fatigue,\u201d the suit alleges.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The following day, students said they returned to school in agony, with many unable to raise their arms to eat, brush their teeth or dress themselves, the suit alleges. Despite this, coaches required them to do push-ups for two more days.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cThis case is about adults who tortured children,\u201d the lawsuit says. \u201cWhen children collapsed, the coaches ordered them to get up and continue. When children cried out in pain, the coaches mocked them for being weak. When children begged to stop, the coaches blew whistles and demanded more. The gymnasium doors were closed. The children were trapped. And not one adult in that building lifted a finger to help them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Twenty children were reportedly hospitalized between Feb. 27 and March 2. Many were diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis, a serious, potentially life-threatening syndrome resulting from rapid skeletal muscle breakdown.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The damaged muscle tissue releases proteins into the bloodstream, which can cause kidney and organ damage, the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The students\u2019 hospital stays were said to have ranged from two to seven days, with multiple patients being referred to specialists for \u201cpermanent kidney damage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The lawsuit alleges systemic child abuse, gross negligence, willful misconduct and a \u201ccoordinated institutional cover-up by school leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The suit names as defendants the Texas Leadership Charter Academy in San Angelo, four school administrators, two former coaches and two current coaches who have since been reassigned to other school duties.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWhat happened at Texas Leadership Charter Academy represents one of the most appalling cases of institutional child abuse we have ever seen,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cThese coaches did not just cross a line\u2014they obliterated it. They used physical exercise as a weapon against children, pushed them to the point of organ failure, and then the administration tried to cover it up, silence the families, and even attempted to force parents to sign away their children\u2019s legal rights as a condition of returning to school.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The lawsuit alleges that no one from the school called any of the families to inquire about their children after they were admitted for hospital treatment. Instead, the lawsuit alleges, \u201cTLCA\u2019s leadership went into cover-up mode.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">In a statement issued Wednesday by Curtis Milbourn, the school\u2019s compliance director, school officials said they are aware of the lawsuit and released the following statement:<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cBecause of the pending litigation, as well as HIPAA, FERPA, and employment law considerations, we are unable to comment on the specifics of the allegations. The safety, health and education of our students remain our top priority, as reflected in our timely response to the underlying situation. We remain committed to maintaining a safe environment where students can grow, learn and succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 KWTX via Gray Local Media, Inc. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANGELO, Texas. (KWTX\/Gray News) &#8211; A dozen families in Texas filed a lawsuit against a charter school&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[294,48920,1932,96624,3812,27,29,96625,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-256666","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-crime","9":"tag-crime-texas","10":"tag-lawsuit","11":"tag-lawsuit-texas","12":"tag-san-angelo","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-texas-headlines","15":"tag-texas-leadership-charter-academy","16":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}