Three Laredo teachers were barred from working in Texas schools after they were arrested for intentionally injuring special education students.
Parents claim school administrators knew about the abuse for months but failed to act—putting more students at risk of harm and the school district at risk of a lawsuit.
The educators worked together at Nye Elementary in the United Independent School District. The alleged abuse occurred in March and April and was captured on classroom surveillance camera video.
United ISD police began investigating on April 27 in response to a parent’s complaint. Parents of other students in the class were notified of the allegations on May 6.
Special education teacher Laura Elsa Sillas and aides Patricia Alviso Lopez and Martha Patricia Ramirez were all arrested by the United ISD Police Department on May 20 and booked into the Webb County Jail.
Sillas was charged with three counts of injury to a child with intent to cause bodily injury and one count of tampering with a government school record. She was released May 22 on bonds totaling $140,000—$35,000 for each charge.
Lopez was charged with 10 counts of injury to a child. Bond was set at $35,000 for each charge. She was released on June 6.
Ramirez was charged with one count of injury to a child and released on a $35,000 bond.
Sillas has been certified as a special education teacher since 2006. Lopez and Ramirez are certified as educational aides—Lopez since 2012 and Ramirez since 2020.
All three had their educator certificates indefinitely suspended and were temporarily placed on the state’s Do Not Hire Registry, keeping them out of classrooms until the criminal cases against them are resolved.
Police records obtained by KGNS reveal details of the educators’ physical and emotional abuse of the children in their care, as documented in classroom videos and Children’s Advocacy Center interviews with two students capable of verbal communication.
Schools officials said the educators were immediately “removed from their positions” when the allegations arose. KGNS later reported that all three had resigned in lieu of termination.
Nye Elementary Principal Cynthia Caballero also stepped down amid the scandal.
Nye’s new principal, Gabriela Perez, said the district’s Special Education Department is now implementing new protocols for ongoing review of classroom videos.
United ISD School Board President Javier Montemayor said the district is also considering more training for special education staff and increased classroom observations.
In addition to the criminal prosecutions of the three special education staffers, United ISD may face civil litigation for failing to protect students from abuse.
Trial lawyer Tony Buzbee confirmed in a May 20 social media post that The Buzbee Law Firm is representing families of eight Nye Elementary students, ranging in age from 6 to 8 years old.
“Children with special needs are the most vulnerable in our society,” wrote Buzbee. “Those who abuse them have no place in the school system.”
We expect the authorities to prosecute those responsible to the full extent of the law, and we expect the school system to determine how such people were ever put in a position to do so. The school system owes these parents answers, accountability, and responsibility. It will be our job to make sure that happens.
“Our firm intends to pursue all appropriate civil legal remedies on behalf of these families,” concluded Buzbee.
Physical abuse of students accounts for more than half of all educator misconduct complaints under review by the Texas Education Agency. The TEA’s Educator Misconduct Reporting Dashboard shows the agency is opening an average of 629 new in-school violence investigations each month.
