Crystal Lara Andrus, 34, is charged with injury to a child, a felony, after an incident in a classroom at Morton Ranch Junior High School on October 4. According to court documents, students in a 7th grade art class were talking and misbehaving after an outdoor assignment and Andrus was trying to get them to settle down.
A 13-year-old student told Katy ISD police that she was standing at her assigned table when Andrus threw a glass tea bottle that struck her in the back of the head.
The school nurse, after seeing the gash on the girl's head, advised her to visit the emergency room. Medical records from the Memorial Hermann Katy Hospital Emergency Department describe the wound as a five centimeter laceration to the girl's head, which required six staples to close.
Andrus initially told the school nurse that the girl slipped and fell in the classroom. Later Andrus reportedly admitted to school police that she lost her temper in the classroom when a student pulled on the blinds. She said she then took a half full glass bottle of green tea and threw it at the table where students were sitting, hitting the teen in the head.
Bail in the felony case has been set at $2,000. Andrus is currently on administrative leave, according to a Katy ISD spokesperson, and the district is in the process of terminating her employment.
A letter from the school's principal was sent home to parents, making them aware of the incident.
The district says there were no signs in this teacher's past that would give them any indication this could happen.
"I disagree, I don't think if they should do anything to the student. If they have a problem, they should report it. I don't think they should take it into their own hands," parent Ashley Dison said.
