A teacher in Kaufman County has been arrested after injuring a child while she attempted to discipline him.
Melissa McDaniels, a special education teacher who worked in Kemp Independent School District, was arrested on a felony charge of injury to a child.
According to The Dallas Express, McDaniels, who was working at Kemp Primary School, was allegedly caught on surveillance video using force on a six-year-old student who has ADHD.
The parents of the child—Todd and Brodie Sexton—were invited to the school and allowed to watch the video footage of the altercation.
The footage, which has not been released to the public but is in the hands of the Kaufman County District Attorney’s Office, shows the child standing on a desk when McDaniel walks towards him.
“He’s acting up and standing on a desk,” the mom told Fox 4 News. “And she walks towards him, and he jumps off the desk. She was behind her desk. She yanks him by the arm as she did that. He slammed into the wall around like this and then falls in front of the desk he was standing on.”
The parents then viewed a second piece of footage showing the continuation of the struggle in a neighboring room.
“She’s got her arm like around his neck. He is trying to get away. He is saying, ‘I hate you! I hate you!’ He gets away,” the mom said. “She is invading his personal space. Instead of letting him calm down, she is egging it down and chasing him. He turns around, and he tries to kick her. She swipes his leg and lifts it up, and he lands straight on his butt.”
“She shoved him back. That’s why he went to kick,” added Todd.
The child’s parents checked their son’s body after the altercation and found marks around his armpits.
According to the Sextons, another teacher witnessed the incident and was the one who reported it to the school.
Kemp ISD said it learned of the situation involving McDaniels on May 1. The next day, Brodie Sexton said she was informed that McDaniels was no longer an employee of the school. McDaniels resigned before the school could fire her.
McDaniels was arrested on May 8 by Kaufman County Sheriff’s deputies. According to online records obtained by Fox 4 News, she bonded out shortly after being booked.
Texas Scorecard has exposed dozens of educators charged with crimes against students and other children.
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