'Don't be a brat:' Texas school teacher charged after dragging girl, 5, by her arm and hair across floor
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HOUSTON, TEXAS: In a harrowing incident, an elementary school teacher was caught on surveillance video dragging a five-year-old student by her hair and arm across the floor while calling her "a brat" for not throwing a fork away. Jenny Alicia Dominguez, 44, a dual language teacher at Houston Independent School District (HISD), was charged with a felony for bodily injury to a child.
A witness who saw the alleged abuse occur at Katherine Smith Elementary reported the incident to the police, according to ABC13. Patricia Saldana said her daughter, Fany Castro, 5, had been bullied and terrorized several times by the teacher. In a similar incident, the teacher is reportedly known to also fat-shame the little girl.
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In surveillance footage shows the teacher dragging the 5-year-old across the classroom floor by her hair and arm while Castro kept getting knocked down for not throwing out a fork in the trash can, according to court documents. The witness added that Dominguez even scolded the child in Spanish saying, "No seas chiflad" which translates in English as, "Don't be a brat," claimed the source. The witness also claimed Dominguez’s behavior as “irrational” and “out of control.” Castro was allegedly knocked off balance during the abusive act and sustained a small cut and some swelling to her arm.
The little girl's mother claimed her daughter suffers from "emotional wounds" too. The mother claimed this is not the first time her daughter has been tormented by Dominguez. She was fat-shamed and bullied by the irate teacher said the mother. "My daughter stopped eating because she said her teacher called her fat, that she didn't need to be eating," Saldana said.
She added that the school is "supposed to be a safe place for the kids to learn, play and not worry about anyone mistreating them." However, the teacher was charged with a felony for injury to a child but had not yet been arrested or taken into custody as of Friday, according to the local outlet. “HISD takes these situations very seriously, and the safety and well-being of our students is always our absolute top priority,” an HISD spokesperson said in a statement. “ISD PD was notified of an allegation of misconduct and the educator was immediately reassigned pending the outcome of the investigation. Due to the Family Education Rights Privacy Act and the pending investigation, HISD will not provide additional information.”