HOUSTON — A first grade student with special needs was abused by his teacher and aide for months, Texas parents say.

It all started when Angelica Frias, the boy’s mother, started noticing her child would regularly come back from school with scratches, bruises, knots in his head and “torn” ears, according to an April 21 Facebook post.

After parents reached out to the school administration with questions about their son’s injuries at Raymond Elementary School in Houston, the Aldine Independent School District said it immediately launched an investigation.

In a statement shared with McClatchy News last week, the school district said it was “aware of an incident at Raymond Elementary School in which a teacher and a paraprofessional made inappropriate physical contact with a special needs student.”

The school shared three videos of incidents that took place within the last few months involving the first grade special education teacher and the aide, ABC13 reported. In one of the videos, Pablo Reyna, the boy’s father, said the aide is seen hitting the student in the face with an object.

The child has special needs and is nonverbal, the mother said, so he wasn’t able to tell his parents what was happening at school.

The woman said the incidents caught on camera caused “alarming concern,” adding “this was only one thing that was shown, imagin(e) the whole school year.”

Frias said she was “furious” and now wants to sue the elementary school.

The woman said another video showed her son being grabbed by the back of his shirt and dragged to his desk.

“As a parent you hope, pray that the teachers treat your special need child good,” she said in her post.

“I am mad, I am hurt,” she wrote. “My poor boy.”

The district said charges are pending against both the teacher and the aide, adding the teacher has been “removed from the classroom” and the aide resigned from the district.

“This incident is deeply concerning and should not have occurred,” the statement said. “The district trains teachers and paraprofessionals in nonviolent crisis intervention techniques at the beginning of each school year and will reinforce that training during the remainder of this year.”

It continued: “Aldine ISD expects all employees to conduct themselves in a manner that demonstrates the proper regard for others and does not tolerate behavior that infringes on the safety and emotional well-being of any students or staff member. In addition, the district will use its resources to protect its students and staff.”

© 2022 McClatchy News
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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