Millsap ISD Superintendent Edie Martin and two former educators were arrested after a video allegedly showed an autistic child abused in a classroom.
MILLSAP, Texas — Dozens packed into a special Millsap ISD school board meeting Friday after a superintendent and two former staff members were arrested after a video posted online allegedly showed educators abusing an autistic child.
Millsap ISD Superintendent Edie Martin, 53, Jennifer Dale, 44, and Paxton Kendal Bean, 25, were arrested Thursday on charges in connection with the alleged abuse. Martin and Bean bonded out of jail and Dale no longer appeared in Palo Pinto County Jail records as of Friday afternoon.
Martin faces a felony charge of failure to report/intent to conceal, Bean is charged with injury to a child/elderly/disabled and official oppression, and Dale is charged with official oppression, according to jail records.
Their arrests came after Millsap ISD parent Carissa Cornelius shared a video March 10 showing her 10-year-old Alex Cornelius, who is autistic and non-verbal, appearing to be slapped by his special education teacher. Another teacher in the video appears to yell at him and throw an object at him.
Cornelius said the incident happened Feb. 18, but school officials didn’t notify her about it until Feb. 28.
Millsap ISD said in a previous statement that the educators involved “were immediately placed on administrative leave, they never returned to the classroom, and they are no longer employed by the District.” The incident subsequently prompted an investigation by the Parker County Sheriff’s Office.
An arrest affidavit states that the parent of the child told police she was informed by school staff her son had run into a wall, causing bleeding from his nose. But when she questioned her son, the affidavit states, he reportedly told her he was punched in the nose by Bean.
Police reviewed a nurse log filled out that day showing the child was taken to the nurse by Bean, the affidavit states, and the nurse documented that he had a “gushing nosebleed.” The nurse documented that Bean said the child was in a “cool down” room” after “throwing a fit” and either ran into her arm or a wall while in the room, but that she was unsure.
Days later, the affidavit states, police asked the child who hurt him at school, and he said Bean did.
According to the Parker County Sheriff’s office, one witness told investigators she reported the alleged abuse to Martin on Feb. 19. Martin reportedly contacted the district’s law firm to commission an external investigation and but didn’t report the suspected abuse to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services or the Parker County Sheriff’s Office, which state law requires.
Further investigation showed Martin filed a report regarding one educator with the Texas Education Agency on Feb. 28, officials said, then a report regarding the second educator to the TEA on March 3.
Another witness said they told Martin to report the offenses to Child Protective Services and law enforcement, officails said. Martin reportedly told the witness she had already made a report to CPS as of Feb. 20.
PCSO says DFPS told investigators they weren’t contacted by Martin but were first notified by PCSO on March 4.
Dozens packed into a school board meeting Friday morning where the board was set to consider a separation agreement with Martin. A school board member said they were unable to take action on the superintendent’s contract Friday. Another meeting is set for Monday.
At the meeting Friday, dozens of speakers took to the podium about the allegations of abuse of special needs children in the district.
One of the speakers, Jami Riggs, said she recorded the video before leaving the district to take another job, and said she presented videos and text messages regarding alleged abuse involving special needs students to Martin on Feb. 19.
“Instead of taking immediate, appropriate actions, Dr. Martin assured me that everything would be handled correctly,” Riggs said. “Instead of acting in the best interests of the students and reporting to the proper authorities, Dr. Martin hired an external investigator. I, along with other witnesses, was asked to sign a document stating that we could not speak about the case. We were silenced. This is not what accountability looks like.”
“I knew that I needed to say something about the events, the stuff that was going on in the classroom. But without proof, nothing would have been done,” she told WFAA. “What breaks my heart is that the parents of these children were never informed of the abuse that their children suffered. The parents should have been the first to know, yet they were left in the dark. This failure to notify them is not just neglect, it is a complete betrayal of the trust that the parents place in this district to care for their children.”
Mark Allen, Alex’ grandfather, also spoke during the meeting, calling for accountability.
“He still cannot be separated from his mother. During the meeting, you may have seen that he was making some commotion and we tried to get him to leave with his grandparents. Normally, he’d have walked right out the door with us. This whole situation has made it where he can’t be anywhere other than his mother’s side,” said Allen, “This morning, when we got in the car to come here, we had to tell him we were going to go to the restaurant to get chicken fries because he loves Chick-Fil-A fries. So basically, we had to fool him, otherwise he wouldn’t have gotten in the car.”
Allen said specifically, he wants the school board to fire the superintendent.
“We’re hoping the board’s going to do the right thing,” he said, “But if they don’t, then we’ll have to have a turnover in the board.”
State School Board Member Brandon Hall spoke at the meeting. Hall is a Republican member of the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE), representing District 11, which includes Parker, Hood, Somervell, and parts of Tarrant, Dallas, and Johnson counties.
“The superintendent needs to be removed, and I think the board needs to take some steps to restore the trust of the community here with further accountability and transparency,” Hall said.
Several parents are planning to hold a rally at Millsap High School at 5:30 p.m. Monday. Then, they plan to attend the next Millsap ISD School Board Meeting scheduled for 6:30 pm in the high school cafeteria.