A second video shows the student leaning against the wall of the cool-down room with his arms crossed, while the two teachers stand at the door for more than a minute. Soon after, the administrator walks to the door where the teachers are standing.

When the two teachers begin to walk away, the student starts to leave the room. Then, the video shows the employee grabbing the student and tossing him back into the space. The video shows the student hit his head on the wall.

After the student’s head hits the wall, the video shows him get up and start to gesture with a punching motion towards the employees. The recording does not show the student punching any of the staff. The school’s report on the incident said the student spit in the staff’s face after hitting his head.Soon after, the video shows two of the employees, including the administrator, restrain the student on the ground for more than 4 minutes. He can be heard screaming “I hate it here.”

In the email from the special education director to the student’s mother that day, administrators said “staff moved him back toward the cool-down room. He fell and hit his head.”

Ten days after the incident, Alfano looked at the surveillance video, according to email records.

“I thought this was a discipline problem I had to follow through with here at home and I was prepared to do that, but [my son] said ‘no, you are not listening, Mom. He threw me into a wall’ – and even I dismissed him,” Alfano said. “I think he felt a huge sense of relief.”

“I felt a huge sense of guilt,” she added.

Records show the district reported the incident to the Texas Department of Children and Families on May 10 — the day after Alfano watched the video. The Texas Education Agency said the State Board of Educator Certification received a report from the district about the administrator on the following day — May 11.

A Round Rock ISD spokesperson said earlier this week, “The timing of the reports [is] unrelated to when the parent viewed the video. The reports were made as soon as district administration had the information necessary through the investigation.”

Records show the Texas Department of Children and Families already ruled out abuse.

“I filed a complaint. I ran that all the way up the chain and I was told by several people that it is just not abuse because over the last few years the definition of abuse has changed,” Alfano said. “The outcome was he wasn’t hurt bad enough to qualify as abuse.”

Alfano believes it was illegal for the school official to prevent her son from leaving the “cool down room.”Alfano has since hired an attorney and said she wants to seek policy and legislative changes because of this incident, including requirements that districts bring in mental health professionals following a restraint or timeout.

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