HOUSTON – A Houston mother is demanding answers after alleging a security guard at her son’s elementary school put his hands around the second grader’s neck.
Rebecca Briscoe says the incident happened at MacGregor Elementary School and involved a security guard employed by Jet Security LLC, a company contracted by HISD.
Briscoe says she was walking to pick up her son from school when she heard him screaming.
“I heard a shrilling sound as I was approaching the front door,” Briscoe said. “And as a parent, especially a mother, you know the difference between an emotional, like my feelings is hurt, humiliated cry, and someone who’s in distress or pain.”
According to Briscoe, her son told her, “I couldn’t breathe. The school resource officer, he choked me.”
Briscoe also alleges school administrators did not initially address her concerns.
Briscoe said she and the child’s father later reviewed surveillance footage with the school principal.
“I watched the video,” she said. “My child’s father and I actually witnessed and watched the video with the principal, and we saw where my son was sitting on a bench, unprovoked, by himself.”
She alleges the footage showed the security guard approaching her son and putting “his hand around his neck.”
“My child is only eight,” she said. “Why would an officer approach my child and put their hands on him? What would give him the right to use excessive force on a second grader?”
KPRC 2 News requested access to the surveillance video from HISD, Jet Security LLC, and the Harris County District Attorney’s Office. But we have not been allowed to review the footage independently.
In a statement to the station, Jet Security LLC CEO Endri Cenolli said the company was told the surveillance footage does not support the allegations.
“The last piece of information we received from the principal at the school viewing the cameras stated that the allegations did not happen as we were told it was on cameras,” Cenolli said in part. “HISD is still investigating these allegations, so I have nothing to comment until the investigation is complete.”
The Harris County District Attorney’s Office confirmed prosecutors declined charges “at this time.”
“We can confirm the office declined charges at this time, as there was not enough reliable evidence to prove a crime occurred,” the DA’s Office said in a statement. “However, as in every case, if new evidence is discovered, we may reopen the case and pursue charges.”
Briscoe says she still wants charges filed and is calling for accountability.
She also wants HISD to publicly release the surveillance footage.
“To me, if they don’t want to show the video, that tells me something,” Briscoe said. “If we’re keeping this investigation open and fair, let it out. Show the video.”
Briscoe says she believes the district has not adequately addressed her concerns or checked on her son’s well-being following the incident.