GONZALES COUNTY, Texas – A boy who was expelled from the Nixon-Smiley Independent School District after confessing to a murder when he was 7 years old will remain in virtual classes with the Gonzales Independent School District, according to court documents obtained by KSAT.
The boy was held in the Guadalupe County Juvenile Detention Center on charges of terroristic threat and injury to a child when he threatened to kill another student on a school bus, documents state.
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During an assessment of the threat against the student, the Gonzales County Sheriff’s Office (GCSO) said that the Nixon-Smiley Independent School District learned that the child had made a statement about shooting and killing a man in 2022.
Investigators questioned the child at a child advocacy center. GCSO said the boy described in detail shooting and killing a man in a trailer in Nixon that was consistent with 32-year-old Brandon O’Quinn Rasberry’s death.
>> Boy, now 10, confesses to unsolved murder of man in Gonzales County RV park when he was 7
Rasberry was fatally shot while he slept in his RV at the Lazy J RV Park, located at 85 Wild Meadow in Nixon. He had been shot one time in the head, according to GCSO.
Since the boy allegedly killed Rasberry before the age of culpability, GCSO previously said that he would not be charged in connection with the crime.
Does not have a ‘good sense of reality’
Documents noted several other incidents dating back to the 2021-2022 school year involving the boy, including threats of self-harm and stealing his uncle’s keys to enter a district campus.
In other incidents in 2023, court documents state that he broke his grandmother’s television and held scissors to his neck in what was considered an attempt to kill himself. The boy was also taken to a hospital later that year for “suicidal ideation” after an argument with his grandmother.
As a result of the boy’s behavior, documents state that the Gonzales Independent School District sought a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction to place the child in a treatment facility pending the outcome of a due process hearing.
“The school district maintains that it cannot safely educate” the child “in a general education setting and that the Shiloh Treatment Center is the only placement capable of addressing his educational and mental health while ensuring the safety of other students and staff,” the documents said.
The court partially granted and denied the Gonzales Independent School District’s request. According to the documents, the boy won’t be placed in the Shiloh Residential Treatment Center due to the facility’s location in Brazoria County.
Documents said that the Gonzales Independent School District must continue to provide virtual classes to the child. However, the boy is prohibited from entering any property owned by the school district unless district officials invite him at a specific time and date.
Furthermore, documents also state that the court ruled that the child cannot have any contact with “any person he knows or reasonably should know is employed by Gonzales ISD.”
Documents state that the boy’s own expert had testified that the child does not have a “good sense of reality.”
The Gonzales Independent School District and the child are expected to address any other issues that need to be resolved once a Texas Education Agency hearing is completed.
More coverage of this story on KSAT