A teacher from the Pflugerville Independent School District is facing charges for injuring a child after allegedly fracturing two fingers of a 5-year-old student with autism.
The teacher has been identified as McKinzie Merrell, 31, who was taken into custody at the Travis County jail and released Wednesday morning.
Merrell has been employed by Pflugerville ISD since August 2023. The incident in question took place on September 4 at Pflugerville Elementary School and has been reported to the Texas Education Agency.
The school released a statement saying, “We were notified by a parent about an unfortunate incident in which a student was injured during school hours, allegedly caused by a teacher. Upon learning this, we contacted our PfISD police and administration, and the teacher was promptly placed on leave while a thorough investigation was carried out. I want to assure you that the teacher is no longer employed by the district. Campus staff has reached out to all parents of students in the classroom individually.”
According to details in the affidavit, the investigation was led by Pflugerville ISD Police. On September 5, police met with the child’s parents and school officials, during which one parent mentioned that the child had said, “Mrs. Merrell broke his fingers.” The parents then took the child to the hospital, where it was confirmed that he had two fractured fingers.
Police reviewed surveillance footage from the day of the incident, which showed an interaction between Merrell and the child around 10:21 a.m. During this time, Merrell had her left arm around the student’s shoulders and was leading him “outside by his right hand,” as noted in the affidavit.
The video indicated that as Merrell led the child outside by his right hand, they paused to speak. The affidavit stated that “Merrell appears to be upset.” After letting go of the child, who walked quietly along the fence, Merrell went to sit on a bench to talk with another teacher.
In the affidavit, the police mentioned that two teachers sitting at the bench were interviewed about the incident. They reported that Merrell claimed the child had hit and kicked her, which led to her reprimanding him. However, this behavior was not captured on the surveillance video.
When police asked whether the student could have injured himself while playing outside, one teacher noted that this was unlikely, as they had just arrived outdoors, and the child had shown unusual reluctance to join in play.
Additionally, the affidavit revealed that Merrell was interviewed by Human Resources, and authorities consulted other school leaders regarding the child’s behavior.
Staff members informed the police that there had been no previous reports of physical aggression from the student.
