SAN ANGELO, Texas. (KWTX/Gray News) – A dozen families in Texas filed a lawsuit against a charter school after nearly 20 students suffered potentially life-threatening injuries in February.
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 “continuous, whistle-driven push-ups for an entire class period — about 45 minutes or more — without water, rest or breaks.”
The students estimated they were forced to do between 300 and 420 push-ups while five coaches walked among them “berating any child who showed signs of fatigue,” the suit alleges.
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.
“This case is about adults who tortured children,” the lawsuit says. “When 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.”
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.
The damaged muscle tissue releases proteins into the bloodstream, which can cause kidney and organ damage, the lawsuit says.
The students’ hospital stays were said to have ranged from two to seven days, with multiple patients being referred to specialists for “permanent kidney damage.”
The lawsuit alleges systemic child abuse, gross negligence, willful misconduct and a “coordinated institutional cover-up by school leadership.”
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.
“What happened at Texas Leadership Charter Academy represents one of the most appalling cases of institutional child abuse we have ever seen,” Johnson said. “These coaches did not just cross a line—they 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’s legal rights as a condition of returning to school.”
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, “TLCA’s leadership went into cover-up mode.”
