Parent who assaulted SAISD teacher: ‘Because she slapped my daughter, I did what she did to her'

Frustrated mom claims daughter's teacher has history of assaulting students

SAN ANTONIO – Sabrina Angel, the parent who allegedly punched a San Antonio Independent School District teacher, is sharing a different side of the story.

Angel, a single mother, told KSAT.com she had just gotten home from work when her 6-year-old daughter Vanitee said that her first-grade teacher slapped her during school for misbehaving in class.

The apparent misbehavior resulted in the Charles C. Ball Academy teacher taking away recess, a time that Angel said is usually when the teacher also takes a break from the school day. 
 
Angel, 22, said she assaulted the teacher out of frustration with the school administration’s lack of discipline, claiming this is not the first time the SAISD teacher has allegedly put her hands on one of her first-grade students.

“My mind went crazy and I went and I got in my car and I called my mom on the phone and I was like, ‘Mom, the teacher did it again,’” Angel told KSAT.com. “Because just last year in November, (the teacher) had pushed a student into the wall in front of the whole entire classroom and she got suspended for one week and she just came right back.”

Angel said that parent, along with others, reached out to her on Facebook shortly after the KSAT.com report, claiming that their son or daughter has also been a victim of the same teacher’s aggression.

ORIGINAL STORY: SAISD teacher punched several times by parent, police report says 

SAISD spokeswoman Leslie Price told KSAT.com that the “employee was on leave earlier in the school year for a short period of time while a concern was investigated. The investigation revealed no misconduct and the teacher returned to school.”

“There were no other complaints or concerns brought to school administration prior to the Jan. 26 assault incident,” Price said.

 

Angel said her 6-year-old daughter doesn’t deserve to be hit by a teacher and she did what she thought was right at the time.

“She deserves to be protected and I just did what I thought was right at the time,” Angel told KSAT.com. “The other kids aren’t getting justice and they’re getting hit and yet, (the teacher has) still been there for eight years.” 

Angel, who says she has two previous assault charges stemming from incidents in her early teens, claims she did not punch the teacher but rather “slapped her one time ... because she slapped my daughter, I did what she did to her.”

“I went up to the teacher and I asked her, ‘Did you hit my daughter? You’re not going to hit another child again,’ and I did slap her. And when I slapped her, she picked up her hands like she was going to fight me,” Angel said. “And she had swung one of her hands and so I had reacted and then another teacher had told her, ‘Don’t fight back, don’t fight back.’”

Angel said she feels wrong about what she did and takes full responsibility for the situation but shared with KSAT.com that she feels like a protector in standing up to a bully. 

“It makes me feel like a hero that I was able to actually stand up for all those kids whose parents went the right way about it, and nothing happened to her (the teacher),” Angel said. “I’m not scared to stand up for what’s right.” 

Angel said she has read the comments that were shared on KSAT’s Facebook post from people who have said, “Now your daughter is going to grow up without a mother.” 

“After I did what I did, I cried and then my daughter told me, ‘Mom, why did you do what you did? Did you do it because you love me?’ I said, ‘Exactly baby, I did it because I love you and I wouldn’t want anyone to hurt you. If mommy doesn’t hurt you, then no one is going to hurt you,’” Angel said. 

“And then she said, ‘Mommy, I will always love you for this’ and that hurt my heart.”

Angel said she told her daughter that there are consequences to mistakes like the one she made but “at least my daughter knows I did it to protect her and because I love her.”

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“I believe that it’s good to talk, I believe it’s good to walk away from situations, but I am also a parent who is going to protect my children no matter the cost,” she said.

Angel told KSAT.com she plans to hire a lawyer and fight the assault on a public servant charge that SAISD police are filing with the district attorney’s office.

FOR SAN ANTONIO STORY IDEAS, EMAIL: agarcia@ksat.com 


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