A mother said she viewed a Georgetown ISD recording of her special needs daughter being assaulted by her teacher.
This is part two of a three-article series of allegations from families who have attended Georgetown ISD. Texas Scorecard asked the district for comment on these stories. Their statement is printed in full at the end of this article.
Milytza Guzman is a nurse. She’s also a single mother of two children who are 11 and nine years old. They moved to Georgetown, located north of Austin, from the San Juan-McAllen area after her divorce. “I just saw Georgetown and heard really good things about it,” she said. “The people were great. I heard nothing but great things about Wolf Ranch Elementary. I immediately wanted my girls to go there.” This was encouraging news for Guzman because her elder daughter is a special needs student.
Wolf Ranch Elementary is part of the Georgetown Independent School District.
To protect the identity of her children, pseudonyms are used in place of real names. Her 11-year-old daughter will be referred to as “Larissa.” Initially, Larissa took very well to the district. “[She] had a difficult time kind of fitting in back home,” Guzman said. “Here she fitted[sic]. She got along. She was very social, whereas, like back home, she was not. My kid changed for the better.”
That changed on September 19, 2024.
Guzman received a call from the school district. Something had happened with her daughter. “I didn’t know how bad it was,” she said. “They just basically had me take my child.” She added that the school emailed the parents of all the third and fifth graders who had witnessed an alleged incident that occurred on the playground. ”If [the parents] had any questions, just let the school know. But that’s about it.”
There was a recording of the events. Guzman said the school didn’t let her watch this recording for five days. When she watched it, she saw Larissa attacked by her fifth-grade teacher: Lisa Cantu.
Larissa was in the playground outside. “My daughter’s just walking with her friends and having a conversation,” Guzman said. “[Cantu] walked from behind and just pinned [Larissa’s] arms, kind of like in a bear hug. She restrained her. My daughter dropped to the ground after that and is trying to get out of the hold. The children are visibly freaking out.” Guzman said that the recording showed that Cantu dragged Larissa inside to the staircase, and to an area without cameras. “That’s kind of where I’m like what the hell happened? I want to know what happened, or what she said to my daughter,” Guzman said. “She should not have put her hands on my daughter to begin with. There are people that are certified and trained for [restraining students], and talking to her friend in the playground, just walking, does not warrant my daughter to be restrained.”
That wasn’t all. Guzman also watched an event earlier that day that was recorded too. “It starts with Ms. Cantu going up to my daughter in the video, removing her lunch plate and her art book, and [Cantu] proceeds to dump it in the trash,” Guzman said. In the recording, she saw the other students were still eating, and Larissa was not finished with her meal. “My daughter, embarrassed by the whole thing, puts her head down to cry because Ms. Cantu also took her art book from her. [Cantu] comes back, drops the pencil in front of [Larissa,] smiles and goes off to another staff member … and she comes back around to take a picture of my daughter with her head down for God knows what reason.”
Janelle Davis, an education attorney in North Texas, said school staff assaulting special needs students is becoming more frequent. “Where some of it comes from is [the] districts are using paraprofessionals in special education classrooms. What I mean by that [are] individuals [that] are not necessarily certified teachers,” she explained. “They’re not trained specifically to work with special needs children, but they’re in the classroom with them. So you know, whether oftentimes it’s some form of improper restraint that happens on a child or something of that nature.”
A search of the Texas Education Agency found that Cantu has a Teacher Educator Certificate.
Guzman alleged the district was more concerned with covering up than coming clean. “They were all trying to cover it up. The first day, they wouldn’t let me see the video.” Even now after seeing the recording, she said the district won’t let her have a copy, citing the federal Family and Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). “I don’t see why they would make it so difficult for a parent to get more information about an incident that occurred,” she said.
Texas Scorecard asked Davis about whether parents are allowed to have copies of these recordings for themselves. “Some school districts will allow that. Some will not, and there’s not real clear guidance necessarily on whether a parent is entitled to a copy. I’ve fought it and had decisions go both ways,” she replied. “If we’re in a situation where there’s litigation, there are ways to request copies and to force the districts to turn over copies in that instance.” Davis still encouraged parents to request copies for themselves.
Guzman went to the Georgetown Police Department. They responded they wouldn’t be able to arrest or charge Cantu until after a full investigation. She’s heard nothing since then. “I’ve been trying to get the officer on the case … He doesn’t answer,” she said.
Texas Scorecard asked the Georgetown City Police for comment. “This case has been investigated by the Georgetown Police Department and we have consulted with the prosecutor,” stated Georgetown Police Department Chief of Police Cory Tchida. “Based on the evidence thus far, there will not be any charges filed at this time.”
At least one investigation is ongoing. A search of the Texas Education Agency found that Cantu is “under review” by the agency’s Educator Investigation Division.
Melinda Brasher of Georgetown ISD confirmed to Texas Scorecard this is the same Cantu as the one discussed in this article.
Guzman claimed she’s heard that issues like this are a pattern for Cantu. “There’s other children that have been going home crying that this lady just bullies them in class, same class as my kiddo. That’s pretty disturbing that the school wouldn’t have done anything about it,” she said. “I called CPS, but they said that they’re not able to make a case. I’m just trying to figure out what’s the best way to help my kid and make sure that this doesn’t happen to another kid.”
Davis said that in these instances, even when a school district removes an offending teacher, it doesn’t always fix everything. “Oftentimes there is still trauma to the child, and they may not want to go back to school, or they may have a fear when they’re in the classroom, or their behavior may have escalated because of what they experienced,” she said. “You have a whole different set of problems that are not remedied simply by removing that teacher from the classroom or the district.”
In the meantime, Guzman’s daughter is healing.
“She kind of wants to go back to the normalcy of it all, friends and all that. But she still has the anxiety of going back because we haven’t been given the safeguard that Miss Cantu will not be returning,” Guzman said. “It’s more like a[n] ‘if or when she returns, they will let me know, and it’ll be no contact.’ That doesn’t make me feel safe at all.”
For parents of special needs children who find out their own child has been abused by a school employee, Davis offered the following advice. “I would immediately first have them try to reach out to an advocate or an attorney for help on what their options are,” she said. “I would also tell them to make sure everything that they are communicating with and from the school district is in writing, so that they have documented proof of the discussions that are happening, and they should request to see any available videos of the incident.”
Davis added that school districts won’t change until state lawmakers change state law to empower parents. “We have got to do something about sovereign immunity for school employees in cases of physical and sexual abuse on students,” she said. “That is a huge barrier to parents being able to seek any accountability and any justice when there is abuse happening. It’s a massive, massive problem.”
Texas Scorecard asked Georgetown ISD for comment. They provided the following statement for this three-part series:
The safety of our students and staff is our top priority. We appreciate you letting us know of your intentions and the opportunity to respond.
Georgetown ISD is committed to transparency and working toward a resolution with families for every concern. Hopefully, you can understand that we are limited in what we can share publicly since we’re prohibited by federal law from discussing the details, including facts of an investigation or disciplinary consequences of individual students.
We have no tolerance for the mistreatment of students and act as swiftly as possible to respond to such allegations. Every report is taken seriously and fully investigated. Unfortunately, federal law can slow down that process when the allegations relate to sexual assault, sexual harassment, dating violence, or stalking because those all fall under Title IX, which requires a long and protracted process, and FERPA prohibits the school district from releasing certain information.
Likewise, state law grants protections for school employees that can prevent the district from acting as swiftly as some would like. However, I can confirm that Ms. Cantu has not been on campus since campus administrators learned of the alleged incident.
We remain committed to being transparent and responsive while working with families according to the protective and legal guidelines that are in place.
The ones who hold the power at local school districts are its elected board of trustees. Georgetown ISD has seven trustees.
If you or anyone you know has information regarding Georgetown ISD, please contact our tip line: scorecardtips@protonmail.com.
Part three of this series will cover the Kellys allegations against the district.
