{"id":767171,"date":"2026-05-02T01:54:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T01:54:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/767171\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T01:54:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T01:54:24","slug":"cy-fair-isd-employee-charged-with-felony-after-disabled-students-death-houston-public-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/767171\/","title":{"rendered":"Cy-Fair ISD employee charged with felony after disabled student\u2019s death \u2013 Houston Public Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\"Cy-Fair<\/a><\/p>\n

Adam Zuvanich\/Houston Public Media<\/p>\n

Pictured is a sign outside the headquarters for Cy-Fair ISD on Sept. 10, 2024, in Cypress, Texas.<\/p>\n

A behavioral specialist at a Cy-Fair ISD campus has been criminally charged after allegedly pushing a disabled student who later died, according to court documents. <\/p>\n

Donald Perkins, 50, has been charged with injury to a disabled person, a felony, Harris County court documents show. On April 23, Perkins allegedly pushed a 16-year-old autistic student to the ground, and the student ended up choking moments later, according to police investigators. The alleged incident took place at the Carlton Pre-Vocational Center, a specialized school for students with disabilities located northwest of Houston.<\/p>\n

The student, which court documents described as “essentially non-verbal,” was transported to Memorial Hermann Cypress Hospital and later flown to Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. According to court documents, the student was pronounced dead due to a “significant period of oxygen deprivation resulting in no brain activity.”<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Hello, Houston!<\/a> daily newsletter to get local reports like this delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n

At approximately 8 a.m. April 23, Cy-Fair ISD police officers responded to a report of a medical emergency involving a student. <\/p>\n

According to court documents, Perkins told officers he had escorted the student off of a bus and to a classroom and that the student had fallen when entering the classroom. Perkins was escorting the student because the student had taken a piece of food from the bus driver and put it in his mouth, court documents show. <\/p>\n

Police said that after speaking with Perkins, they reviewed surveillance video from the school and the bus and allegedly saw inconsistencies with Perkins’ story. <\/p>\n

“I observed at the 7:06:26 a.m. mark of the video, the defendant forcefully and deliberately push [the student] from behind,” one of the investigating officers wrote in court documents. “The push was forceful and [the student] hit the ground with significant force.”<\/p>\n

RELATED: Multiple Fort Bend ISD employees fired after allegations of abusing autistic students<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The student then went and sat down, but began acting erratically, and staff noticed that he appeared to be choking, according to court documents. <\/p>\n

Perkins attempted to perform the Heimlich maneuver, but was unsuccessful, court records show. <\/p>\n

In a statement to Houston Public Media, a spokesperson for Cy-Fair ISD said Perkins was placed on administrative leave following the incident and that the district is cooperating with law enforcement.<\/p>\n

“We are devastated by the loss of one of our students. My most sincere prayers are with the family, and we grieve alongside them during this heartbreaking time,” Cy-Fair ISD Superintendent Doug Killian said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Perkins was set to be released from the Harris County Jail after posting a $30,000 bond on Friday, court records show.<\/p>\n

A defense attorney for Perkins was not listed in online court documents as of Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Adam Zuvanich\/Houston Public Media Pictured is a sign outside the headquarters for Cy-Fair ISD on Sept. 10, 2024,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":533536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5130],"tags":[281,4219,170662,407,6262,115009,4345,314784,314785,425,11782,50,358,314786,3187],"class_list":["post-767171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-court","tag-crime","tag-cy-fair-isd","tag-education","tag-education-news","tag-felony-charge","tag-houston","tag-houston-area-schools","tag-injury-to-a-disabled-person","tag-local","tag-memorial-hermann","tag-news","tag-texas","tag-texas-childrens-hospital-houston","tag-tx"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116502493239652478","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=767171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/533536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=767171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=767171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=767171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}