Mother of student thrown into wall by Texas teacher speaks at school board meeting
ROUND ROCK, Texas - Earlier this week, FOX 7 Austin showed you video of an administrator throwing a student against a wall.
The boy's mother voiced her frustrations during public comment at the Round Rock ISD School Board meeting.
The incident happened in April at Round Rock ISD's GOALS Learning Center. The center is for students who qualify with an emotional disturbance.
The student, Quintin Proctor, 14, was taken out of class for being defiant.
Two teachers brought him to what's called the "cool down room." Eventually, the assistant principal relieved them, but then threw him against the wall.
Quintin's mother, Tatiana Alfano, spoke at Thursday's school board meeting.
"Round Rock ISD has a dangerous, misinformed, and systemic culture of abuse. Every restraint seclusion performed on a child is considered an adverse childhood experience a.k.a. trauma," she said.
She says Quintin has been a special education student his whole academic career. He's been at the GOALS Center for three years.
"He reports witnessing approximately one restraint seclusion almost every single day at GOALS," she said.
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Alfano was cut off after two minutes and was told her time has expired.
"My son is owed an apology after being thrown into a wall," Alfano said.
Another board member moved to let her finish her statement, but nobody offered a second. The board instead took a recess. Some audience members could be heard saying, "let her speak."
FOX 7 Austin received a statement on RRISD’S investigation earlier this week. A spokesperson said: "The District's investigation is complete. The staff member is still employed but not assigned to GOALS Learning Center. He is currently working on administrative projects at the district's Central Office."
Alfano thought that was unacceptable, so she reached out to the Department of Family and Protective Services to review the case. The institution came back and said the case was "ruled out" claiming "it was reasonable to conclude that the alleged abuse and neglect did not occur."
"Common sense says, 'hey, this is abuse.' I don't know anybody who's seen that video and doesn't say, 'hey, this isn't child abuse,'" Alfano said in an earlier interview.
The Texas Education Agency confirmed they are investigating the administrator in question. A TEA Spokesperson said "TEA can confirm that the educator in question currently has an investigatory flag on their certificate. Since the matter remains ongoing, we cannot comment further at this time."