SAN ANTONIO — Special education teachers flooded a Northside Independent School District meeting on Tuesday to tell the school board they are experiencing violence in their classrooms.
It comes just one week after a Northside ISD educator died from severe injuries allegedly sustained from an interaction with a special needs student.
Alfred Jimenez was known as “Mr. Fred.” The beloved teacher worked for the district since 2014.
On Feb. 7, Mr. Fred reportedly suffered a fall after an encounter with a student. He was rushed to a hospital where he died 10 days later, according to loved ones. Mr. Fred’s son told KENS 5 the 73-year-old was talking to his boss about retiring the same day he was injured.
“When I saw Fred on the news, my heart broke,” a teacher told school board members. “Not only did I work with him and have good times with him, but I have been attacked. You can look; scars -- just like all the teachers here. The biggest scar is the one that goes from my sternum to my pubic bone. That is because a student hit me repeatedly. Three days later, I am in a hospital in the emergency room waiting for an ambulance to take me to a different hospital emergency room to have exploratory surgery for four hours to find out what the child did to me. Internal bleeding!"
"I had to go out and buy myself gloves to keep my hands from being scarred anymore,” said another special education teacher. “I had to go out and buy a face shield to keep my face from being scratched."
"I am not a military person,” said a third special education teacher. “I was not given the expectation that I would be in peril. So, it is up to you to do what it takes to keep our teachers safe. If we have safe teachers, we are going to have safe kids. I am deadly serious about this. I am not the type of person who comes and talks to the board; I have never done it before, but I could not keep quiet. I knew Fred, he was a dear man. It is up to you to support us.”
Teachers asked the district for more support staff and higher pay to retain those workers. They also accused Northside ISD of looking at the numbers of students per teacher and not considering the severity of some of the cognitive issues specific students have.
Board members said they “heard the concerns,” but were unable to address them because it was not an agenda item.