Texas Teacher Arrested For Allegedly Breaking 5-Year-Old Student’s Fingers

A Texas teacher is facing charges for injury to a child after being arrested earlier this week.

According to a report from KXAN, 31-year-old McKinzie Merrell is a teacher for Pflugerville Independent School District in central Texas. She was arrested, booked, and release from the Travis County Jail on Wednesday. The alleged incident happened on September 4th at Pflugerville Elementary School and was reported to the Texas Education Agency.

Teacher Allegedly Breaks Students Fingers

KXAN reported that according to the affidavit, Pflugerville ISD carried out an investigation where police say they met with the parents of the child and school leaders. It was at that meeting when one of the parents allegedly told school leaders that Merrell had broken the student's finders. According to KXAN, the student is 5-years-old with autism.

The parents had taken the child to the hospital where they learned that two of his fingers were fractured.

KXAN reports that according to the affidavit, police reviewed surveillance footage from the day of the incident and police saw Merrell leading the student by his right hand. At one point the teacher allegedly appears upset and released the student. The teacher then went to speak to another teacher.

Police stated in the affidavit two teachers on the bench were interviewed about what happened, and they said Merrell “told them the [student] hit her and kicked her in the shins and she scolded the [student] for doing so.” Police noted in the affidavit this was not seen on surveillance video.

Police apparently asked teachers if the student could have broken his fingers while playing outside, but the teachers said "no". KXAN also reported that Merrell never reported any aggression from the student.