NORTHWEST HARRIS COUNTY, Texas – Child Protective Services is investigating claims made by a grandmother that her 8-year-old grandson was held down by a school staff member for nearly an hour.
Dawn Tobias says her grandson has autism and limited verbal abilities.
She said, on Jan. 30, a Moore Elementary School official called her saying the third grader would need a change of clothes. Her concerns grew when a classmate’s parent called.
“I got a call from another parent in the class asking about Sean, [saying] that her child came home crying upset that they [school staffers] hurt Sean,” Tobias said. “I was outraged for that child. When that restraint began, that child ran and hid in a cabinet. He went and told his mom because he was scared.”
Tobias watched the hour-long video with the school principal.
KPRC 2 did not review the video. Tobias shared recordings she discreetly made when she reviewed them.
KPRC 2’s Rilwan Balogun reached out to leaders at Cy-Fair ISD regarding Tobias’ allegations. He sent them a list of questions regarding the incident and impending investigation. The district spokesperson said they couldn’t share any information. That video was over an hour of him being restrained.”
“The allegation referenced was fully investigated by campus administration; however, I am unable to provide you with the outcome of the investigation or the medical condition of the student,” a Cy-Fair ISD spokesperson said. “For any additional information, please see the Public Information Request process posted on our website.”
“What else are they hiding? What else goes on? Now, I want to see every video,” Tobias said.
Cynthia Singleton, of Advocate Well, an organization that trains parents of children with learning and intellectual disabilities to get their children help, says she’s alarmed to hear the claims.
“For a student to be restrained like that, it tells me two things: it tells me, one, that there is not an appropriate behavior intervention plan in place for that student,” Singleton said. “Two, that the teacher either doesn’t have the training or doesn’t have the support to implement that plan.”
She said there are several ways parents can handle a situation. She lists three ways by categorizing them as the teacher, district, and special education levels.
Teacher level: File a complaint with the school and the Texas Education Agency.
“At the teacher level, what you should do is actually file a complaint against the teacher’s license because what happens is a lot of times teachers will get fired from a district and removed from a school and they just go to the next district, get hired and do the same thing at a different district,” Singleton explained.
District level: File a level one grievance.
“The second thing that you can do at the district level is you file what is called a level one grievance. It should be online,” Singleton said. “A big district like Cy-Fair has it online but the Texas Education Agency requires all districts make level one grievance forms available to parents.”
Singleton said to print out the form and follow the district’s process. Typically, there is a timeframe. Singleton said it should be done within 10 days of the issue.
“What you do is you hand that grievance to the supervisor of the person who committed the act,” said Singleton.
Special Education level: Call and set up an Admission Review and Dismissal meeting.
“The other thing you can do that is at the special education level is that you call an immediate ARD meeting. And you request to review the ARD meeting. For those parents who don’t have kids with special education, it stands for Admission Review and Dismissal,” she said. “The ARD committee is formed of people who have knowledge and interest about the student program.”