ECISD Report On PreK Student’s Mistaken Release Reveals Conflicting Testimony, Lapses In Supervision
Picture above: ECISD Board of Trustees President Miguel “Mike” Farias
Edinburg TX – December 8, 2022
The Edinburg CISD Board of Trustees called an emergency meeting yesterday to discuss the results of an investigation of how a 3-year old Truman Elementary student mistakenly got on a bus rather than stay at school. The results revealed conflicting testimony and lapses in supervision at the school.
According to parent Alyssa Villarreal, her daughter was supposed to stay on campus as part of an after-school program until 5 pm at the school. However, she received a call from a woman who reported Villarreal’s daughter was at her door along with the woman’s daughter. Villarreal then went to the campus to report the problem and also filed a police report on the incidence. The incident happened on December 1, 2022.
“The reason why this meeting was called is because we, as a district and as a board, take these matters very serious,” said ECISD Board of Trustees President Mike Farias. “I have a 3-year old grndaughre. I wanted to see what we could do to do better, not to rake anyone over the coals, but to see who we can do better – the bus drivers, schools, police – and evaluate ourselves and make the changes we need do.”
According to Superintendent Dr. Mario H. Salinas, ECISD Police Chief Ricardo Perez, Jr. investigated the incident and provided a report to the Board and administration. Perez handed out a written report during the meeting.
“We took this incident very seriously and spoke to everyone involved from the time of release,” Perez explained. “I assigned Detective Sargeant Antonio Carrizales to do the investigation, and he is here to provide the details.”
“No criminal act took place,” Carrizales explained at the start of his presentation. “There was no criminal intent or malice. But there was some lack of oversight and some things that happen at campus of that size.”
Truman Elementary has more than 700 students. Students are released at 3:15 pm.
According to Carrizales, the entire incident took approximately 15 minutes from the time the student got on the bus to the time she was dropped.
Carrizales explained that the school has four dismissal points for students who are picked up by vehicle, those who are picked up by a family member who walks up to the school, those who walk home on their own and those who go on the bus.
Villarreal’s daughter would normally be taken to the cafeteria where the students are held until they are picked up by vehicle or held for the after-school program.
When the bell rang, Villarreal’s daughter was taken to the cafeteria by a staff member where one or more staff members supervise the students and take them to the vehicle where they are picked up.
According to Villarreal, one of the staff members was distracted and did not see that Villarreal’s daughter walked away from the cafeteria to a nearby hallway where the students were being lined up to be taken to the bus pick up area. The staff member in that group did not realize that Villarreal’s daughter had become part of the group.
Once at the bus pick up area, Villarreal’s daughter was next to one of her own classmates and stayed with the group.
According to Carrizales, at that point, two students had been left behind by a previous bus. The staff members supervising the bus students were distracted calling back the bus and loading the two students and did not notice that Villarreal’s daughter was now part of the next group of students to be loaded onto a bus.
As the second bus moved up, a door alarm in the building close the bus pick up area also distracted the supervising staff. The bus driver then had to load the students without the help of the school staff. Carrizales said the bus driver did not notice that he had an extra student.
Within a few minutes, the bus arrived at the apartment where the second student got off. Villarreal’s daughter got off with her classmate.
According to Carrizales, the bus driver reported that he did not move the bus until he saw the mother open the apartment door.
However, Carrizales reported that when he met with the woman to investigate the incident, the woman reported that she was not at the door when the bus left the drop off point. She reported that she was busy and was not at the door when the student got off. She was alerted when her own daughter knocked on the door, along with Villarreal’s daughter. She emphasized that the bus driver did not see her at the door at any point.
The woman then went through Villarreal’s daughter’s backpack to find her mother’s contact information and then called her.
Carrizales reported that he was able to track Villarreal’s daughter’s movements throughout the school on the campus video recordings from release to getting on the bus.
“Were there lapses?” Carrizales remarked. “Of course there were, but not negligent lapses. Staff members are doing their job, but they were distracted. The bus driver thought he saw the mom, but he took off. This was the perfect storm of bad circumstances. There was a good plan in place, but like any plan, if we don’t follow the plan, this can happen.”
Carrizales also reported that the bus driver was young and had been on the job for less than six months.
ECISD staff pointed out that the school uses a color-coded tag system at the beginning of the year for the early grades as students become familiar with the school and the routine.
Superintendent Salinas said the school would return to having the color-coded tag system as a permanent plan. Students would have to turn over the tag to a staff member as they are being picked up to verify that they are at the right place being picked up by the right person. He added that similar template would be used for all the elementaries.
It was pointed out that ECISD elementaries vary from 300 to more than 700 students, each with different layouts and campus designs. Salinas said the district would form a district-wide committee to review the plans for each campus and implement campus improvements.
Trustee Luis G. Alamia pointed out that the written report pointed out that several staff members who would normally help in supervising students during release were not on hand.
“From reading your report, it seems that a lot of persons that were supposed to be on bus duty were not there. They were attending meetings. We need to be more stringent on this.”
Farias agreed, saying that there needs to be “all hands-on deck” during release time. “If somebody needs to meet with the principal or a teacher or other staff members, they will just have to wait until the students are all released.”
The Board went into a closed-door session for about 30 minutes to further discuss the matter. After the board returned to public session, Farias reported that no action was to be taken on the matter.
However, Farias did voice support for additional funding for staff if needed to address safety issues for student release. Salinas added that all staff would be retrained on proper release procedures and requirements. The director of transportation will reinforce training for all bus drivers.