2 teachers from same Manor ISD elementary school arrested for abusing children

MANOR, Texas - Two teachers from the same Manor ISD elementary school are facing felony charges after they allegedly abused children in their care.

47-year-old Michael Nathan has been charged with state jail felony injury to a child and 51-year-old Pamela Craig has been charged with second-degree felony injury to a child.

Both worked at Presidential Meadows Elementary.

Manor ISD teachers arrested for injury to children

The backstory:

Court paperwork outlines what led to the charges against Craig and Nathan.

Pamela Craig arrest

On Aug. 21, Manor ISD police learned about an incident in the Special Education room at the school involving a teacher and several students.

The investigation uncovered no less than 23 "overly aggressive physical encounters" between Craig and five students over 11 days.

All the students were nine years old, nonverbal and autistic, as well as unable to comprehend or communicate in any way.

Court paperwork says that several incidents were captured on district-owned cameras, including:

• Craig forcefully grabbing students by the upper arms up off the floor or out of a chair, causing them to cry
• Craig grabbing one of the students by the face, jerking his head around, straining his neck to yell in his face at least four times in one incident
• Craig jerking a female student by the wrists, pulling her out of her seat and off her feet, before slamming her into a sitting position on the floor, bending over her to make her pick up a toy, then wrapping her arms around her from behind and slamming her back into her chair
• Craig forcefully pulling students out of chairs, putting them on the ground, and pushing the students' backs with her knee to make them stay seated

Police say the video footage has audio of the students crying after the incidents.

The affidavit alleges that Craig admitted to Manor ISD police that she is overly aggressive with the special education students.

Michael Nathan arrest

On Aug. 25, at around 2:40 p.m., court paperwork says that Nathan was on duty as an English teacher at the school.

At dismissal, Nathan was allegedly seen on video grabbing a child by his backpack while he was walking past him into a parking lot towards the buses.

Nathan then allegedly pulled the child back into the building, slammed him against a wall and pinned him with his forearm across the child's neck and chest for about 10 seconds.

The child told the principal that he had pain to his neck and difficulty breathing from the incident.

Police say the incident was recorded on the district-owned camera system.

Both were arrested by Manor ISD police.

What's next:

Bond has been set for Nathan at $25,000, according to court paperwork, and he has been ordered not to have any contact with the child and to stay away from the school.

Nathan has a court date set for Sept. 25.

Bond has been set for Craig at $15,000, according to Travis County court records, and she has been ordered to stay away from the school and have no unsupervised contact with minor children.

Craig has a court date set for Sept. 23.

According to state records, both Nathan and Craig's state teaching certifications are under review.

Manor ISD responds

What they're saying:

Manor ISD responded to a request for comment saying that due to this being a personnel matter, the district was limited in what they could share.

However, the district did confirm that it provides annual training for special education staff in several areas, including:

• Behavioral management
• Instructional strategies for working with students individually and in small groups
• Physical assistance such as safely lifting, transferring, or assisting students when needed

Staff also receive ongoing Crisis Prevention Intervention (CPI) training, which focuses on de-escalation strategies and appropriate responses when managing crisis situations. 

"Additional training includes autism support, the role of paraprofessionals in Life Skills classrooms, and the use of communication devices for students who are nonverbal. These training sessions are reinforced throughout the year during professional development days, through additional training requested by campuses and through campus-level reviews of protocols and expectations as needed. Non-Sped staff go through similar training both annually and as needed throughout the school year," said the district in an email.

Manor ISD also confirmed to FOX 7 Austin both Nathan and Craig are no longer employed by the district.

Superintendent Dr. Robert Sormani sent out a letter to the Manor ISD community last week about the arrests:

Dear Manor ISD Community,

Over the past few days, our community has received difficult news involving former Presidential Meadows Elementary employees and their arrests on charges of "injury to a child". I know these reports are deeply concerning, and as your Superintendent, I want to speak directly to our families and staff about our response and, more importantly, what we are doing moving forward.

Every family should be able to send their child to school knowing they will be safe, supported and cared for. You expect the adults working with your children to treat them with patience, respect and compassion. When an employee fails to meet those expectations, particularly in a way that may cause harm to a child, it is deeply troubling to all of us.

In each of these recent situations, the District acted upon receiving the reports. The employees were removed from the campus and placed on administrative leave while the matters were investigated. They are no longer employed by Manor ISD, and we continue to cooperate with law enforcement and the appropriate authorities.

But responding appropriately after a concern is reported is only one part of our responsibility. We must also look closely at what we can learn from these situations, where our practices can be strengthened and what more we can do to help prevent situations like these from occurring.

That work has already begun. Staff at the impacted campus have received additional training focused on student management and appropriate employee conduct. At the district level, we are reviewing our practices and expectations to determine where additional training, support and oversight can strengthen the safeguards surrounding our students.

Our hiring safeguards, including required criminal background checks and fingerprinting, remain an important part of that work. But student safety does not begin and end when someone is hired. It requires ongoing attention, clear expectations, continued training, appropriate oversight and accountability at every level of our organization.

I also want to recognize the more than 1,200 Manor ISD employees who come to work each day committed to doing right by our students. While the actions that led to these recent reports are deeply concerning, they do not diminish the dedication of the many employees across our district who work every day to provide our students with safe, caring and supportive schools.

As Superintendent, I recognize that our community needs more than reassurance right now. You need to see through our actions that we are willing to examine our practices, address areas where we can improve and hold ourselves accountable for providing the safe learning environments our students deserve.

That is the work we are committed to doing.

Our families entrust us with what matters most to them every day. We will continue working to honor that trust and ensure every Manor ISD school is a place where students are safe, supported, respected and cared for.

Sincerely,

Dr. Robert Sormani
Superintendent

Attorney for injured child's family waiting to view video evidence

Local perspective:

A family’s attorney said he is still waiting to access video evidence after a child was injured at school.

Robert Ranco, with Dang Law Group, is representing the family of the nine-year-old who was reportedly assaulted by Nathan.

"He was bruised, he was damaged, his air was cut off in his windpipe during the choking out," said Ranco.

He said the boy went home and told his father what happened. The father contacted the school and was allowed to watch the surveillance video.

"My client, the father, has viewed the video evidence and it confirms what is written in the arrest affidavit," Ranco said.

Ranco said he has not been allowed to see the video in his clients’ case.

"School districts, if they want to instill confidence in the parents, in the community, that things are being done properly, they need to create that transparency," Ranco said.

He said he also wants to know if there were warning signs.

"Is it reasonable to believe that these teachers are doing these things and nobody knows that they have these propensities, that there were no warning signs? I guess it's possible. But it seems unlikely," Ranco said.

New Texas laws regarding employee misconduct

Big picture view:

This comes as Texas has toughened the rules for reporting employee misconduct. New legislation requires superintendents to report certain allegations to the TEA and the State Board of Educator Certification within 48 hours.

That includes physical mistreatment or threats of violence, even if the child is not injured.

"You know your child best. And if you notice a child where something's bothering them on the inside," speaker, author, attorney, and sexual assault expert JoDee Neil said. "You want to make sure the door is open so that if the child is able to disclose, they will, they can."

Neil said the legislation that is supposed to help keep students safe needs to go a step further.

"If you're the parent of a child who has been harmed, you have a narrow exception to be able to get the footage from the ISD, the footage and the HR file of the person who allegedly committed the act," Neil said.