Mesquite police arrest substitute teacher accused of encouraging students to fight
Mesquite police have arrested a substitute teacher who was fired after she was accused of encouraging students to fight in a classroom last week.
Natally Garcia, 24, of Dallas, faces four charges of endangering a child, Mesquite police said in a news release Monday. Investigators determined that Garcia engaged in conduct that placed four students in a Mesquite ISD school in danger of bodily injury, police said.
On Thursday, the Mesquite Police Department was notified of the incident, which occurred at Kimbrough Middle School on Wednesday. Video of the incident was forwarded to Mesquite police investigators for review.
The Mesquite Independent School District fired Garcia on Thursday based on cellphone video that showed her setting up one-on-one fights between students in her classroom, school district officials said.
In a letter to parents, district officials called her actions “appalling and intolerable,” KXAS-TV reported.
“As educators, our hearts are heavy knowing that an individual entrusted with the supervision and care of our students could behave in this manner, and we share the disgust that the families of students in this class must feel,” district officials said in the letter.
The district told parents that Garcia not only encouraged the students to fight, but outlined rules for them to follow and instructed a student to monitor the door. In video footage, she is heard telling students not to record the fights.
The student who recorded the video said the teacher pushed aside desks so the 12- and 13-year-olds would have room to fight, according to KXAS.
Beatriz Martinez, the mother of the student who recorded the fights, told KXAS that she was devastated.
“I couldn’t watch the full video,” she said. “I had to stop it multiple times because I didn’t think it was real. I was like, this must be a prank. This is not real.“
Martinez said other students have threatened her daughter for reporting the incident.
Garcia had been employed by Mesquite ISD since March 6, district officials told WFAA-TV.
This story was originally published April 17, 2023 at 4:54 PM.
