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By Camille Phillips, Texas Public Radio

After the death of an instructional assistant in San Antonio in February 2024, special education teachers in the city’s largest school district filed a formal complaint alleging his death was part of a widespread pattern of student-caused injuries. But that 77-page report was just the tip of the iceberg. 

Texas Public Radio Education Reporter Camille Phillips obtained a copy of the grievance and used the emails and photos included in the document as a springboard to investigate how often special educators are hurt, what increases the risk of injury, and what can make them safer. What Phillips produced as a result has helped spark national conversations about education, access and safety for some of the most vulnerable children in schools— and the people who risk their own safety to care for them.

Phillips found that the special educators who filed the grievance were regularly hit, kicked, or bit by the students in their classroom. Their risk of injury was exacerbated by a staffing shortage that sometimes leaves staff alone in classrooms with students prone to aggressive behavior. Experts recommend at least three adults in those rooms. Without adult help, the teachers are sometimes forced to put themselves in harm’s way to protect their students.

She also found that the experience described by the San Antonio teachers is likely repeated across the country, and that special educators are more likely to be injured by students than general educators.

However, the problem may be more acute in Texas, which has one of the highest rates of special education staffing shortages, and where limited funding makes it difficult for districts to increase pay for hard-to-fill positions like special education assistants.

As her station’s education reporter, Phillips covered the death of Fred Jimenez in February, when news first broke that he died after being pushed by a student. She also covered a school board meeting later that month where teachers shared their own experiences being injured at work, and interviewed the teachers’ union president, who said her members were worried someone else could die if changes weren’t made. 

After teachers, and Fred’s widow, showed up to another school board meeting in May to share the same concerns, Phillips decided to do a deep dive on the issue over the summer, starting with reaching out to the teachers’ union. The union president told Phillips they had filed a formal complaint with the district and weren’t getting much of a response. Because the union president knew and trusted her work, she agreed to share the report with Phillips — and Phillips alone.

The teachers who filed the grievance continue to work with their union to advocate for a resolution to their concerns, especially more staffing. 

After the initial stories aired, the school district provided Texas Public Radio with a document outlining the remedies district officials say they are working towards—although they say they cannot promise additional staff.

In the course of her reporting, Phillips also established an important precedent with the Texas attorney general’s office. The district initially described the complaint as “pending litigation” and asked the attorney general for an exception to her open records request. However, after her stories aired the AG’s office ruled in her favor, and the district was required to provide a copy of the complaint.

Phillips continues to pursue more stories on the topic, following leads that developed after her initial reporting. She’s in contact with an attorney who represents children who have been hurt by classmates in special education settings, underscoring her finding that injuries are often caused by insufficient staffing, and that students are at risk too. 

She created a Google form for educators to share their experiences of being hurt at work, and produced a video for social media to direct teachers to the form. She’s in the process of interviewing the numerous teachers who filled out the form.

Unlike some investigative stories, the solution to the problem of special educator injuries can’t be solved by simply uncovering how pervasive of a problem it is. The student who pushed Fred Jimenez certainly isn’t at fault. But by exposing the problem, Phillips has started a conversation — one that will likely continue in statehouses, courtrooms, and school board rooms.

When NPR picked up her reporting, the story struck a deep chord with the national audience, sparking more than 700 comments and 2,500 shares on Instagram. Many of the comments were from educators affirming the findings.

She initially pursued the story because of one man’s death. But she soon realized the story went beyond Fred Jimenez, intersecting with many of education’s most intractable problems: the teacher shortage, school funding, and access to quality special education.

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