Teacher aide assaults 8-year-old student, Richardson ISD fails to report it to TEA for months
DALLAS (CBSNewsTexas.com) – A Texas elementary teacher's aide was caught on a school camera physically assaulting an 8-year-old student, yet the Richardson Independent School District did not report the incident to the Texas Education Agency for nearly four months.
Last October, at Aikin Elementary School in Dallas, a special education teacher's aide approached an 8-year-old student sitting at a cafeteria table and "slammed his head on the table," according to the police report. The student did not report any injuries to police.
According to the police report, the teacher's aide was upset because boy was "using profane language and yelling out racial slurs" toward her.
The following day, after a student witness reported the incident to the principal, school officials went to speak with the aide.
She immediately resigned.
According to the Texas Education Code, when a school employee resigns and there's evidence the employee abused a student, the superintendent must notify the Texas Education Agency (TEA) no later than the seventh business day after the resignation. That way the state's education department can investigate and put the former employee on it's do not hire registry, if needed.
But Richardson ISD did not report the teacher's aide to the TEA within seven days. The district submitted a report nearly four months later, the day after the CBS News Texas I-Team reached out to the district with questions about the incident.
A spokesperson for Richardson schools said the district reported the incident to Child Protective Services the day after the assault and made the Dallas police officer assigned to the campus aware of the incident. However, the spokesperson said, based on what Child Protective Services (CPS) told school officials, the district initially determined the aide's action was "highly inappropriate and grounds for termination, but did not rise to the level of assault or abuse." CPS would not comment on the case.
District officials told the I-Team Richardson ISD's central office was unaware of the Dallas police investigation that resulted in the aide being cited for misdemeanor assault. The principal did not report the police investigation to the superintendent under the mistaken assumption that her office was already aware, according to a school spokesperson.
Child advocates say it's imperative for school districts to report incidents of alleged abuse or assault to the TEA.
"It's only through reporting that we can have accountability, said Kym Rogers, an attorney with Disability Rights Texas.
The victim's mother, Brittany Wood, said it's been difficult to get details about the incident involving her son from the school.
When Wood first went to see the principal after the assault, she was told she couldn't see the video of the assault on her own son. The school told Wood she would need to file an open records request. RISD said it made the video available to the mother three weeks after the assault. Wood said it was months before she first saw it. Texas law requires schools to provide prompt access to video to parents but it's common practice for Texas school districts to require parents to submit requests in writing.
The Aikin Elementary principal also refused to tell Wood the name of teacher's aide, telling her it was confidential. A district spokesperson said the principal made a mistake and could have provided the name to the mother.
"It's been really nerve wracking – the entire process of not knowing what's going," Wood said.
When Wood finally saw the video of the assault, she said it was worse than she envisioned.
"It was heartbreaking," she said.
The former Richardson teacher's aide pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor assault charge. When reached by the I-Team, she said she had nothing to say.
As a result of how Richardson school officials handled the reporting of the assault, a school spokesperson said the district has taken steps to improve protocols.
All campus administrators are being re-trained on their reporting duties for incidents that involve law enforcement. Campus administrators are also being reminded to consult with the school's human resource department when parents ask questions about employees. Finally, moving forward, Richardson ISD plans to error on the side of overreporting incidents to the TEA when it may not be clear whether it meets the abuse criteria.
