LISD arrests central Office Employee, Places Campus Administrator on Leave
Written by admin, Oct 13, 2009, 0 Comments
Courtesy Roberto Treviño,
The Laredo Independent School District arrested a central office employee and placed a campus administrator on leave for failure to report the abandonment and neglect of four young children in early September. One of the children, two-year-old Katherine Cardenas, was later found deceased in her west Laredo home.
LISD Police Officers arrested district attendance officer Ricardo Perez on Tuesday afternoon for his failure to notify Child Protective Services of the abandonment of Cardenas and her brothers and sisters. Perez, who was charged with a Class B Misdemeanor for failure to report child abuse or neglect, was also terminated as an employee of LISD on Tuesday afternoon.
“By not reporting this case to CPS immediately as he was directed, he violated our LISD policy. The security and safety of Katherine and her siblings was compromised as a result,” stated Dr. Marcus Nelson, Superintendent of LISD Schools. “As soon as we knew about this situation, we took immediate and serious action. We will not tolerate those who exercise a level of poor judgment that jeopardizes the safety and welfare of our children.”
“I am confident that these actions will send a strong message to our employees that they must follow procedures that are put in place to safeguard our students,” Nelson added.
Santa Maria Elementary School principal Nora Santos was placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the district’s internal investigation. Santos, and three other Santa Maria School staff members instructed Perez to call CPS after discovering the unsupervised children in their home during a standard home visit.
Diana Juarez, Interim Director of Elementary Education met with the faculty and staff at Santa Maria School and is coordinating the day to day operations with assistant principal Noralva Johnson.
