SAN JUAN, Texas – School district officials say a 25-year-old south Texas teacher’s aide charged with illegally restraining a student using zip-ties has quit.
Pharr-San Juan-Alamo Independent School District Superintendent Daniel King says Jose Manuel Martinez resigned Dec. 15, the day the boy’s mother reported the incident.
Martinez, who was originally identified mistakenly as a teacher, allegedly used the plastic ties to bind an 11-year-old boy’s hands at Austin Middle School.
Another aide who witnessed the incident told police that the boy had used vulgar language and became violent, refusing to do his work. That witness said the boy was bound for five minutes and it was the third time he had been restrained that way.
Martinez is free on bond. The Monitor reports a woman who answered the phone at his home said he was unavailable.
