Baytown special education teacher accused of assaulting student with autism, cameras being reviewed

Investigators are checking classroom cameras at Antonio Bañuelos Elementary in Baytown after a special education teacher was charged with throwing a student with autism to the ground and causing a bloody nose.

The student is non-verbal, according to prosecutor Michael Haddad.

“So it was tough to even get this case here. But we did find pretty substantial evidence that this defendant did assault this child,” Haddad said after teacher Shaq Alvarez Morales made his first court appearance Wednesday.

• Alvin ISD elementary school staff member arrested, accused of ‘inappropriate behavior’ with a student

Morales is charged with injury to a child.

He was arrested Monday after the Goose Creek CISD police department went to the school on May 3 to investigate.

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Footage from the classroom showed the student sitting at a table, got out of their chair with a dry-erase whiteboard and began walking around. According to court documents, the video shows Morales telling the student to put up the whiteboard, which the student is seen throwing on the ground. As Morales walks up behind the student, video shows him him grabbing the child’s arm and lifting him before throwing him to the floor, where the student hits his face, and begins to cry.

“Even the parent was quite shocked that this teacher could have done this to her child because they had a great relationship,” Haddad said, adding “There is currently active investigation checking cameras in the classrooms, things like that to make sure nobody else was affected by this man.”

SEE ALSO: Former Cy-Fair ISD teacher pleads guilty after 5-year-old boy with special needs dragged by ankle over 100 feet

The affidavit says Morales did not check on the student or offer him any assistance for his injuries before picking up some items and returning to his desk.

“Another teacher in our community. And it seems so common nowadays that teachers in our community are taking advantage of their positions of power and assaulting their students that parents entrust to when they go off to work for 8 or 9 hours a day. So again, really harrowing to see,” Haddad told KPRC 2 Photojournalist Jeovany Luna.

Morales’s conditions for bail are:

• No contact with the the school. He cannot go within 1,000 feet.
• No contact with the student
• He can’t have any firearms.

Morales and his attorney did not comment after court.