Parents raise concerns over east valley elementary school teacher

A mother is raising concern over the behavior of a teacher at Cesar Chavez Elementary School in Coachella. Cristina Rodriguez said her daughter who is a 4th grader at the school felt unsafe due to the teacher’s behavior.

“My daughter starts crying hysterically,” she said. “Crying and scared and start telling me she does not feel safe in her classroom.”

Rodriguez said her daughter began pretending to be sick earlier in September. After speaking with her on what was really going on, she said she realized the teacher’s conduct may have been an issue.

“What all the kids are saying is she has a bad temper,” she said. “She’s always angry, and my daughter said this…she’s not happy with herself.”

Rodriguez said she heard from another parent that the teacher allegedly threw a book at a student and grabbed a student by the arm in separate instances. She said this type of behavior was unacceptable. She said parents like herself trust teachers to provide a safe space for kids in classrooms.

“This is where we leave them, because they have to feel safe,” she said.

Rodriguez said she has had conversations with the school’s principal about the teacher and felt frustrated that the school was being slow in possibly removing the teacher. She went public about this issue on social media and found other parents that were dealing with the same issues as her daughter. She and 8 other parents met with the principal Tuesday morning.

When approached in the school office, Principal Robert Hughes declined to make a comment saying this issue was a personnel matter.

Dr. Maria Gandera, assistant superintendent of human resources with the Coachella Valley Unified School District, said safety of their students is the district’s number one priority, and added that they took any concerns from parents seriously and were addressing the issues with the teacher in question.