A YMCA teacher who worked inside Pflugerville Independent School District has been arrested and accused of injury to a child after multiple instances were caught on surveillance video.
According to the arrest warrant affidavit, in one instance of the alleged abuse, 45-year-old Geraline Wilson Browning was caught with her hands around a child’s throat.
Pflugerville ISD said they were sifting through the footage for an unrelated request when staff found the disturbing footage. At the time of the incidents, Browning was a teacher in the YMCA of Central Texas Childcare Development Center at Northwest Elementary School.
The district said after the discovery of the abuse, the YMCA “acted swiftly, removing the staff member from the classroom.” They also informed families and authorities about the incident.
“In the subsequent days, we continued our thorough review of all available classroom footage, revealing additional incidents involving the same YMCA teacher. This information has been shared with the YMCA, CPS, and our police department for their ongoing investigation, as well as with the families,” a PfISD spokesperson said per KXAN.
The additional events occurred on January 29 and February 12, 20, and 21, and involved three separate children in the program. All surveillance footage of the events was sent to police for further investigation.
YMCA of Central Texas Chief Marketing Officer Laura Arrendondo said in a statement that they had “recently terminated an employee after reviewing evidence of physical aggression” against its students.
The statement continued saying, “The well-being of our students is our utmost priority and fortunately, these children are safe. We follow the state’s guidelines on safety and run extensive background checks before hiring employees. The YMCA of Central Texas is committed to ensuring the safest possible environment for our families and will work tirelessly to that end.”
According to court records, as of Friday, Browning was still not in custody and had an active warrant out of Travis County.
There are no Texas Education Agency records that show Browning ever had a teaching certificate.
Texas Scorecard has exposed dozens of educators charged with crimes against students and other children.
