An educator in San Antonio’s largest school district is under investigation after a 13-year-old student claims he assaulted her in class during a heated exchange. While no disciplinary action has been confirmed, district and police officials said the allegations are still under review.
The Northside Independent School District and the San Antonio Police Department are investigating a 37-year-old male instructional assistant at Pat Neff Middle School for injury to a child by reckless behavior, a felony offense. Though, the educator has not been charged with a crime.
District officials said the incident was also reported to Child Protective Services and the NISD Human Resources Department.
The mother said her daughter’s foot was reportedly wrapped around a chair leg when the child was flung into a wall, resulting in a bruised foot and “significant emotional distress.”
“On May 7, 2026, [the educator] got in my daughter’s face, screamed at her and spat on her while yelling,” the mother told MySA. “He then hooked his hand into the back of her chair, violently shook it, and when she did not move out of fear, yanked and shoved it out from underneath her.”
The child’s mother takes issue with the way the investigation has played out, including claims her daughter was interviewed by police without a parent present or notified, and a lack of discipline for the district staffer reportedly responsible.
The mother said this has led to possibly retaliatory or undue consequences for her child. She said behavioral issues are now being directed to campus administrators rather than support services, and any referrals to in-school suspension automatically divert to out-of-school suspension because the instructional assistant under investigation works in the in-school suspension (ISS) program.
San Antonio police provided few details and did not answer several questions from MySA regarding the incident. Officials said a statement was collected from the student, confirming the mother’s concerns.
“A conflicted administrator inserted himself in my place. During the interview, my 13-year-old daughter was interrogation-style interviewed,” the mother told MySA. “She was treated like a liar, even though the school had already done its own internal investigation and confirmed what happened, and her physical injury was dismissed in front of her face.”
The mother continued, saying, “She walked out crying. She was treated like a criminal rather than a victim.”
NISD officials vowed to take appropriate disciplinary action regarding the instructional assistant pending the investigation’s results, though the mother said she is upset that the educator has seen no impact from the allegations against him.
The mother told MySA she did not want to identify the instructional assistant to protect the anonymity of her child.