changed the law<\/a> so professionals with reasonable cause to believe a child has been abused must report it within 24 hours, instead of the previous 48 hours.<\/p>\n\u201cThat\u2019s the concern is, where\u2019s the accountability for the other adults and the professionals that were in that room who did not, obviously did not follow the law?\u201d McDonald said.<\/p>\n
Parent raised concerns before arrest<\/p>\n
Breana Blackwell\u2019s daughter Paisley was in the same class as the victim over the last school year. Paisley is nonverbal, but her mom said she could tell something was wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe, I mean, immediately would come home just so overstimulated and angry. And I just knew something was off from that very first day I walked into that classroom,\u201d Blackwell said.<\/p>\n
Blackwell said her family\u2019s hired nurse would go to class with Paisley and come home with concerns. She said her nurse told her one time her daughter\u2019s G-tube was pulled out, but no one could tell her how it happened. Blackwell showed several emails she sent to the school\u2019s principal about these instances.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very much like come in, let\u2019s talk about it. Well, this is her first year teaching SPED classes. Let\u2019s just give her a chance, give her a few weeks to get used to everything. And my kid is not a guinea pig,\u201d Blackwell said.<\/p>\n
Blackwell said the principal called her regarding another email she had sent and told her the teacher\u2019s aide would not be in the classroom anymore.<\/p>\n
\u201cI assumed it was because of my e-mail and I was like, wow, they\u2019re listening. Unfortunately, it was because a student had been humiliated the way that she was, which is far worse,\u201d Blackwell said. \u201cA lot of people hear about these things happening in the news and it\u2019s, you know, the worst case scenarios, but nobody really sees the little things that lead up to that.\u201d<\/p>\n
District response<\/p>\n
Frenship ISD provided a statement confirming Harrell, a special education teacher, two substitutes and a private-duty nurse were all present at the time of the incident.<\/p>\n
The special education teacher was placed on leave for the remainder of the school year for failure to report. According to the district, this teacher had previously submitted her intent to resign prior to the investigation.<\/p>\n
In addition to the criminal investigation involving Harrell, Frenship has reported details of the case to CPS and the State Board of Education Certification, including the failure to immediately report the incident by the adults in the classroom.<\/p>\n
McDonald said another parent reached out to him after Harrell\u2019s arrest. She told him she requested the security camera be placed in the classroom back in February. The district confirmed a parent made this request. McDonald said she also filed a report with the Frenship Police Department regarding the lack of timely reporting.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd not that there aren\u2019t things that happen, but when things happen, I don\u2019t think anyone is holding Frenship Independent School District directly accountable for what the paraprofessional did. But you are being held accountable for how you responded to it,\u201d McDonald said.<\/p>\n
A district spokesperson said because of the ongoing criminal investigation involving personnel matters, they are limited in other details they can share. The spokesperson said creating a safe learning environment is top priority and they take these investigations very seriously.<\/p>\n
Blackwell said she hopes the district will take parents\u2019 concerns more seriously in the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlways trust your gut. You know best, you know your kid more than anybody. And if you feel like something is off, you need to say something,\u201d Blackwell said.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 KCBD. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – A Lubbock parent and lawyer say the arrest of one teacher\u2019s aide is not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[76710,1680,115365,62366,54200,58729,14573,115366,163,32077,21470,115367,4794,30642,48,18396,115369,2549,168,170,169,106382,3657,672,115368,21735,18345,109752,8788,2360,19233,8510,115364,4114,115363,6056],"class_list":["post-322272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lubbock","tag-aide","tag-arrest","tag-breana-blackwell","tag-classroom","tag-concern","tag-delayed","tag-district","tag-dwight-mcdonald","tag-education","tag-elementary","tag-frenship","tag-inappropriate","tag-incident","tag-independent","tag-law","tag-lawyer","tag-leave","tag-legacy","tag-lubbock","tag-lubbock-headlines","tag-lubbock-news","tag-mandatory","tag-parent","tag-police","tag-questions","tag-raise","tag-report","tag-reporting","tag-resignation","tag-school","tag-special","tag-state","tag-tnae-harrell","tag-teacher","tag-voyeurism","tag-warrant"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}