The Snook school district has removed an employee from his position after a video posted online showed him repeatedly pushing a small child in a classroom.
Facebook user Stacy LeeAnn Gutierrez, a parent of a child in the district, posted a video of the incident late last night, which quickly gained a large amount of attention. In the 29-second clip, a man is seen picking up a small child and pushing him down into a bean bag several times against the boy’s will.
“When I tell you to do something, you do it,” the instructor said in the video. “Boy, when I tell you to sit on that blue beanbag, you do it.”
The student in the recording repeatedly tells the instructor “no” and does not sit down.
Gutierrez said in the Facebook post that her son recorded the video and showed it to an administrator at the school. The administrator watched the clip then erased it, she said. However, Gutierrez said her son had already sent the recording to another device “to keep a copy.”
According to a statement released by the Snook school district shortly after the video surfaced online, the district immediately removed the instructor from duty “pending a full review and investigation of the matter.”
“The Snook ISD Administration became aware of an incident of concern in which a Snook ISD employee was attempting to exert discipline and control over a young student,” the statement read. “The incident was immediately reported by another student to the principal. The principal did an excellent job in quickly obtaining and preserving available video evidence from school cameras and a student’s mobile device. … Our top priority is for our students to be treated in a safe and respectful manner when they are in our care.”
A longer statement released by the school district Friday afternoon said the staff member was a behavior specialist.
In the statement, Snook ISD Superintendent Brenda W. Krchnak said she has ordered a review of the district’s “faculty and staff use of discipline and restraint.”
