Texas parents want teacher punished after video showed him grabbing their autistic son
KATY, Texas -- A Texas teacher was caught on camera allegedly assaulting an autistic child, KPRC reported.
The parents of the child say the teacher in question should be punished properly.
The video appears to show a Katy Independent School District teacher attempting to grab a student. He then grabs him by the collar pulling him across the desk.
Jose Saenz and Daniela Reinfeld are the parents of the 9-year-old student.
"You think you're sending your kid off to a place where they're going to be taken care of, and instead, this happens," Saenz said.
When asked how she felt when she saw the video, Reinfeld said, "Betrayed, most of all, and just the helplessness of knowing that I was sending my child every day to endure his abuse. That's definitely some guilt with that."
Their son has autism and is non-verbal.
A district spokesperson told KPRC the educator is no longer with the district.
The parents told KPRC the teacher has been charged, but KPRC has not been able to confirm that, so they are not identifying him.
The two of them were made aware of the incident after a witness, who secretly recorded the video, anonymously sent it to the district who then investigated.
The witness then directly sent the video to the parents.
"They didn't do absolutely anything to him. They removed her from the classroom, the witness, and then fired her from the school. It wasn't until she sent this video to the police department that they actually went ahead and fired the teacher," Reinfeld said. "That was what, when the police came to my house to talk to me about it, they told me this teacher had several complaints against him."
Officers said they showed the teacher the video and told him his actions were a misdemeanor, and he would be cited.
According to the report, the teacher then texted the child's mother and asked her to not damage his career.
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