PLAINVIEW, Texas– The Plainview Independent School District released a statement on Monday in regard to an incident at South Elementary School which involved a group of 6-year-olds. The situation included a video that was described as “inappropriate,” and parents were angry. 

According to the statement, the incident happened on Wednesday, April 19 and occurred “away from the full vision” of the teacher while she was working with another group of students. The incident was recorded on a “electronic device.” The device was later taken up and appeared to be “password protected.” It was later unlocked and the video was discovered.

Child Protective Services (CPS) was notified and an investigation was started. The findings from the investigation were shared with the school principal, campus authorities, the assistant superintendent and superintendent. PISD also said the parents/guardians were notified of the situation.

The statement said, “The teacher was also placed on administrative leave pending the investigation.”

The family of the children involved said that was not the case. Heather Gonzales, a concerned family member of the one of the students, told EverythingLubbock.com the school never contacted them after the incident. She said parents were only given details about the incident when a protest was staged outside the PISD administration building.

Gonzales said her 6-year-old student was a victim of sexual harassment on two separate occasions. Gonzales, along with her aunt Esther Sepeda, demanded answers and action to be taken to prevent incidents like this from happening in the future.

Sepeda told EverythingLubbock.com her child has begun having nightmares about the incident and has refused to go back to school.

She also said it was her job as a guardian to protect her child and be “her [child’s] voice.”

Since the incident occurred, parents began to post about the situation on social media. Gonzales said ” if I would have never made that post, and if I wouldn’t be making all this noise, I guarantee nothing would be coming out of this.”

EverythingLubbock.com reached out to PISD on Monday and Tuesday for further comment. We were referred back to the original statement that could only be viewed on the district’s mobile app.

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