A Central Texas school district is fighting against the release of a man convicted in a deadly school bus crash that killed a pre-kindergartner and a University of Texas at Austin student in 2024. Hays Consolidated Independent School District leaders are now urging state leaders to deny parole to Jerry Hernandez, who pleaded guilty last year to two counts of manslaughter and was sentenced to 18 years in prison. 

Hernandez admitted to police he used marijuana and cocaine the night and early morning hours before the crash. Authorities said in an affidavit that Hernandez also had a history of failed drug tests and a “prohibited” commercial driver’s license status.

Although Hernandez was sentenced less than a year ago (September 2025), he will soon be eligible for parole later this month in April. In a letter to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Hays CISD Superintendent Eric Wright “urged the parole decision-makers to oppose parole now and anytime in the years to come for Jerry Hernandez.”

“The direct victims and the greater community have barely begun to heal. Classmates who watched Ulises die are still only in the first grade,” Wright wrote. “Physical scars are still visible. Emotional trauma still surfaces. For the wounds that can eventually heal, it will take much more time. It has only been 24 months.”

Wright explained in the letter that 51 of those on board the bus were injured, some permanently and the Hays CISD school district community is still recovering from the crash. He added that Hernandez’s 18-year prison sentence is the restitution, for better or for worse, offered by the system in the name of justice for the victims.

“If he were granted parole at just two years as time served, it would not be justice at all,” Wright said. “…He cannot be allowed to walk away from the suffering he has caused while bits of debris – not yet faded by the sun – are still scattered in the drainage ditch next to Highway 21, where the flipped school bus came to rest alongside what was left of Ryan Wallace’s car.”

Hernandez was originally charged with two counts of manslaughter and two counts of criminally negligent homicide. However, Hernandez later entered a guilty plea to manslaughter and the criminally negligent homicide charges were dismissed. 

TDCJ records show Hernandez’s parole eligibility starts April 19. MySA reached out to the Bastrop County District Attorney for comment.