Employee Organized: Videos show disturbing fights at Texas School

by Rhonda J Mangus | May 13, 2009 at 03:40 pm
812 views | 57 Recommendations | 7 comments

Photos

Employee Organized: Videos show disturbing fights at Texas School

Employee Organized: Videos show disturbing fights at Texas School

see larger image

uploaded by Rhonda J Mangus

Videos

Texas State School handicap fight club

see larger video

sourced by Rhonda J Mangus

Texas State School handicap fight club

Corpus Christi State School employees allegedly produced cell phone videos of disturbing scenes of developmentally disabled students fighting each other, and also organized the fights.

In one of the videos released Tuesday, two of the students at the Corpus Christi State School fight on the ground while a third person kicks them. A male voice can be heard egging on the residents.

In another scene, a student pins a peer against the wall and punches him in the face with an audible crack.

In March, police obtained the videos recorded on 16 days between late 2007 and early this year. Eleven former employees of the Corpus Christi State School are accused of organizing the fights.

Timothy Dixon, a 31-year-old former employee, is accused of filming the late-night fight clubs on his cell phone camera. He faces criminal charges along with Jesse Salazar, 25, Guadalupe De La Rosa Jr., 22, Vincent Johnson, 22, D'Angelo Riley, 22, and Stephanie Garza, 21. Garza faces the same charge but as a state jail felony. Garza was accused of failing to intervene.

The other accused employees were either fired or no longer worked for the agency at the time the scandal was revealed.

Police said in March that those charged were the ones who could be identified in fights where there were clear injuries.

The videos feature a cheerleading-type voice over commentary – "part two, part two" – as residents wrestle.

A man wearing a striped shirt holds a person down with a pillow over the face of another man. Footage shows as many as three people fighting each other at one time. People can be heard laughing as a resident sits on the floor and checks his lip for blood.

"The video is clear at how poorly people can treat the disabled," said Bob Hilliard, an attorney for one of the former residents at the school.

On December 1, 2008, the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice notified Texas Governor Rick Perry of numerous instances of abuse and violations of federal law in the care of the developmentally disabled in the state's 12 residential facilities.

More recently, United States Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, criticized Perry's handling of state schools. Perry fires back,  here.

Advertisement
recommend This comment thread is now closed
0
Amy Judd

This is awful - there's just no excuse.

1
Rhonda J Mangus

Thank you Tina and Amy for reading, commenting, and for the recommendations. It is true, there is no excuse and, in my opinion, Governor Perry (at the very least) needs to be held accountable for this. 




0
158

Things like this should never happen.

0
Rhonda J Mangus

158, thank you for reading, commenting, and for the recommendation. Things like this should never happen. --

0
Rhonda J Mangus

Me too, jazz. Thanks for stopping back.



1
Rhonda J Mangus

Most know it is going on (like Governor Perry, for example) and do nothing (if then) until it's 'leaked' to the media.

Let me add, that in a lot of cases, even the media isn't reporting as it should on corrupt 'school officials' and violence in schools.




0
laurenatc

Ugh. Truly horrific.

This story was created over 3 months ago, the comment thread is now closed.

NowPublic on Facebook

What is NowPublic?

NowPublic lets people work together to cover news events around the world.

Find out more

Crowd Power

deleted_user_348302
First Flagged at 4:06 PM, May 13, 2009 by deleted_user_348302
These members have powered this story:

Related Stories

Recommendations (57)

Most recently recommended by:
 

closeSign in to NowPublic

is reporting from