CIBOLO, Texas – Three former employees at Watts Elementary School in the Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City Independent School District were arrested and charged with felonies on Dec. 29 in connection with a misconduct investigation.
Jessica Longo and Veronica Guerra-Ulrich were charged with unlawful restraint, a state jail felony. Julia Cantu was charged with injury to a child, a first-degree felony.
According to police, officers were able to seek arrest warrants for the three educators after interviews with SCUC ISD administration and reviewing available camera footage.
“I want people to realize you can’t just hurt children,” Chelsie Lukasik said.
Lukasik has a child with special needs who was in a classroom with the three educators being charged with felonies.
“She would scream at him, scream in his face, hit him in the head, hit him on the face, so we’re trying to help pursue action about that,” Lukasik said.
Lukasik said she believes Cantu is the one who hurt her child because of how he reacted to photos of her when speaking with authorities. However, her son has low verbal abilities and is autistic, making it hard for him to communicate.
“Another friend of mine, her son is more severe, and he was ripped out of his chair by his arm by one of the teachers that were taken into custody,” Lukasik said.
Other families who live in the district shared how they feel about the school.
“There’s a lot of kids that don’t like Watts because they don’t feel safe at Watts,” Billy Underwood said.
Underwood said his daughter is in middle school now but did not like her teachers at Watts. He said she would not elaborate on why, but that he didn’t have a reason to believe she was not safe.
Another person, Sherri Horton, has a grandchild at Watts Elementary.
“I feel like that the school has handled the situation very well,” Horton said.
However, the parent of another child with special needs in the district said she does not feel like students are safe in school anywhere.
“I don’t think kids are safe really anywhere nowadays and it’s really sad, especially with Watts,” Rachel Nicholas said. “I know of other personal stories of assaults that have happened.”
SCUC ISD provided KSAT with a statement about what the district has done since learning what was allegedly happening with these educators and students.
The district said it “took immediate action to ensure student safety, including promptly contacting impact families and reporting the matter to law enforcement; the individuals involved are no longer employed by the district.”
The district also said a report has been filed with the Texas Department of Child Protective Services and an employee misconduct report has been submitted to the Texas Education Agency.
The three educators have bonded out of the Guadalupe County Jail. However, police said additional charges may be considered as the investigation continues.
Chelsie Lukasik said her husband plans to meet with administrators once students and faculty return from winter break to review the footage himself. The family said they are receiving legal help from Morgan’s Multi-Assistance Center and plan to have their son in additional therapy.
The district said it was made aware of allegations on Dec. 17; however, the educators were not arrested until Dec. 29.
Lukasik also believes this has been an ongoing issue for months between one of the educators and her son. She alleges several other children have been impacted by one of the educator’s actions in the past.
KSAT reached out to SCUC ISD again to get clarity on other allegations. The district did not reply as of Friday night.
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