Humble ISD special education teacher accused of hurting, causing injury to nonverbal student

HUMBLE, Texas (KTRK) -- A former Humble ISD special education teacher faced a judge on Thursday for allegedly harming a student.

Court documents say other school employees witnessed the suspect yanking and dragging a nonverbal student for misbehaving.

Amber Reynolds found herself in a courtroom Thursday for what police said happened in the classroom last year. She was responsible for educating nonverbal autistic students at Pine Forest Elementary.

According to court documents, back in September, the school's principal witnessed Reynolds getting rough with a 5-year-old student. Reynolds allegedly dragged the student by his arms on more than one occasion for refusing to follow her directions.

Court documents state the principal immediately corrected Reynolds and conducted an investigation.

In October, Humble ISD met with the student's mother, who gave them pictures of bruises the child allegedly came home with on the day of the incident. Based on the evidence, Reynolds was charged with bodily injury to a child.

On Thursday, the school district also confirmed that on the same day of the incident, they had been alerted about Reynolds allegedly giving melatonin gummies to a few students.

In 2016, Reynolds, Humble ISD, and several others were listed as defendants in a federal lawsuit. Documents state the plaintiff was a special education student who claimed to have sustained severe and pervasive verbal and physical harassment on school grounds.

The documents also say Reynolds resigned from Humble ISD in 2015, but it's unclear when she was re-hired in the district. The judge ultimately filed a motion to dismiss the suit in 2017.