Guadalupe Rodriguez a mother of a 5-year-old-autistic boy at a Brazoria County elementary school in Texas is demanding justice after video showed two teachers, Britney Henshaw and Sydney Madill assaulting her son leading to him having a broken ankle.
A mother of a 5 year old boy with autism captured on surveillance video being assaulted by two female teachers last month at a Brazoria County elementary school in Texas has demanded prosecutors file criminal action against the educators.
Britney Henshaw and Sydney Madill were terminated after footage showed them assaulting a 5-year-old nonverbal autistic student at Wild Peach Elementary School in Columbia-Brazoria Independent School District.
5-year-old-autistic student returns home with broken ankle
The educators were captured on camera during two separate incidents on October 30.
Surveillance video from the classroom reportedly shows one teacher violently slamming the boy to the floor. Less than an hour earlier, another clip appears to show the same teacher dropping him.
A separate video later in the day shows a different teacher kicking the child’s injured ankle while attempting to force him to walk, despite visible signs of pain. It was upon the child arriving home with a broken ankle that the boy’s mother went to her son’s school demanding to know what had happened to her son.
School officials without directly identifying the two teachers seen on tape this week fired both Henshaw and Madill, WTHR reported.
Despite the two teachers being fired, the child’s mother, Guadalupe Rodriguez is now demanding that the two teachers also now face criminal accountability.
Will Brazoria County prosecutors file criminal charges against elementary teachers?
Rodriguez described the experience of watching the footage as ‘devastating,’ saying her son’s disability made the abuse even more disturbing.
The parent said she noticed something was wrong when her son returned home limping that afternoon. Concerned, she immediately took him to urgent care, where doctors diagnosed him with a fractured and sprained ankle.
Rodriguez returned to the school the next day demanding answers. When the principal allowed her to review surveillance footage, she discovered multiple incidents showing her son being mistreated and ignored, WTHR reported.
In a letter to parents, Wild Peach Elementary’s principal confirmed that the incident had been reported to both the Texas Education Agency and the Columbia-Brazoria ISD Police Department, which has referred the case to the Brazoria County District Attorney’s Office for review.
To date the 5-year-old has not returned to Wild Peach Elementary since the incident, and Rodriguez says she is now consulting with attorneys to explore legal action.
The Brazoria County District Attorney’s Office has not yet confirmed whether criminal charges will be filed.
