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Houston ISD employee accused of 'man-handling' 5-year-old
FOX 26 Reporter Randy Wallace spoke exclusively with the family after they got the video of the incident following an open records request filing.
HOUSTON - "Everybody in the cafeteria saw everything, and they did nothing," said Saveor Hagan, the 5-year-old's mother.
Hagan witnessed the tail end of the incident at Nathaniel Q Henderson Elementary School on April 28.
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She was there picking up her two older daughters when she saw her youngest in the cafeteria.
"She was sitting in front of him in a chair, crying, kicking, and hollering trying to ask for help," Hagan said.
The mother says she asked the male teacher why he was restraining her child.
"He said I'm not holding her that tight, I just got her like this," said Hagan. "You still have her while I'm talking to you, you still haven't let her go."
"No grown man over 200 pounds is supposed to be manhandling a 5-year-old," said the little girl's Great Uncle Art Smith.
With the help of her Aunt Koffey El'Bey, Hogan filed a grievance against the teacher.
"There was no reply at level one, no reply at level two, and level three is when it goes before the Board of Trustees and the Superintendent. There has been no reply from anybody," El'Bey said.
In response to their open records request, HISD allowed the girl's mom, great uncle, and aunt to view the video at HISD Headquarters on Thursday.
"They told me she was running around in the cafeteria. When I looked at the video, she was sitting down at the table, he came to her and got her up," Hagan said.
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"She was still sitting down, and this guy was pacing back and forth, and then he went over there and tapped her on the shoulder," Smith said. "That's when everything started, she was sitting down with the rest of her classmates."
You see the teacher pick the 5-year-old up and carry her across the room.
"It made me so mad, I was crying," said Hagan.
"It's sad my 5-year-old daughter had to go through that. There's a lot of grown people in the cafeteria, and they did not stop it."
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In a statement, HISD says it's aware of the allegation.
Upon learning of the alleged incident the employee was reassigned to home duty pending the outcome of the investigation.