EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — The mother of a preschool student with autism at an El Paso Independent School District elementary school alleged her daughter was left unattended and unsupervised during school release, and that the district was dismissive of the incident.
“To trust this teacher, to trust the school, to trust everyone with my child was such a huge deal,” said Alexandria Ruiz, the mother of 4-year-old Luciana.
Ruiz said that the incident occurred on Monday, Sept. 29, when her husband went to pick their daughter up after school from EPISD’s Kohlberg Elementary School.
She said her husband lined up with other parents at the designated pick-up area, and that when it came time for the teacher to hand her daughter over, the teacher couldn’t find their daughter in the playground where she was supposed to be waiting.
Ruiz said her husband immediately called her to let her know they couldn’t find Luciana, who is non-verbal. She said that after a couple of minutes of her husband desperately searching for their daughter, he found her in the school’s parking lot, far away from the pick-up area.
“There’s multiple teachers, paras (paraprofessionals), coaches. We don’t understand how she was able to get past every single person,” Ruiz.
Ruiz said that while her daughter was safe and unharmed from the situation, she alleged her teacher made light of the situation.
“The teacher just made it seem like it was a very silly misunderstanding. She reacted like ‘oh, Lucy, you can’t wander off,’ and that upset us,” Ruiz said.
Ruiz said she took her concerns up with both the school and district administration, but she said her concerns were not taken seriously. She said she was given a “quick” meeting with the school, but that they did not make any accommodations for her daughter and instead suggested there were other schools with the program.
“This is just, to me, is unforgivable. I mean, my daughter’s four. She can’t speak. She cannot talk. She doesn’t have a voice. And we’re very lucky that she was not upset at that moment. She’s having a lot of issues right now: having outbursts, and she’s getting very upset and just crying, and she can’t tell us what the problem is. We don’t know if it’s stress,” Ruiz said.
Ruiz’s sentiments have been echoed by other parents with special needs students at that school and across EPISD.
Those concerns were fueled following the death of a teenager with autism from Austin High School who was struck and killed on an El Paso highway last week. The family said the boy was at-risk of eloping, and alleged the school failed to carry out a safety plan to ensure he didn’t escape.
El Paso ISD’s Board President, Leah Hanany, said that following the incident, she has worked with the district’s interim superintendent to identify what systems and processes need changing regarding special education.
“We’re getting feedback that there have been ongoing issues for years from our special needs parents and populations. So it’s very, very important that we use this as an opportunity to address their concerns,” Hanany said.
Hanany said that the immediate priority of the district following these incidents is to be transparent with parents about what efforts are being made to address potential gaps in their systems.
“The public deserves to know what happened and what we’re doing, and so do families that have concerns,” Hanany said. “It’s important that we have that third-party investigation, but we can’t wait for that third-party investigation to be complete. We need to dig in and demand that the district do its part now to ensure that there are steps being taken, while that investigation is ongoing.”
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