03/21/2025
Millsap ISD Superintendent, Teachers Arrested, Charged With Abusing Special Needs Children
By MARSHA BROWN and MEREDITH McGRATH
WEATHERFORD – A third arrest was made this afternoon, and additional details are unfolding in today’s breaking news story concerning shocking allegations brought against three Millsap Independent School District staff members who are charged with abusing their special needs students.
Millsap ISD Superintendent Mari Edith Martin was arrested and charged with Failure to Report, Intent to Conceal abuses by special education professionals at Millsap Elementary School. Martin’s charge constitutes a State Jail Felony.
The Probable Cause Affidavit issued Wednesday (March 19) by Christian Townsend with the Parker County Sheriff’s Office alleges that Martin knew about the abuse for a full nine days before reporting it. Even then, she didn’t report it to police, but to the Texas Education Agency (TEA).
Martin also instructed witnesses who were on staff at Millsap Elementary School to delete videos of the incidents and texts between their professional peers discussing the abuse, and not to discuss anything related to the abuse with the parents of the children involved.
Jennifer Cain Dale, 44, a special education teacher, and Paxton Kendal Bean, 25, a paraprofessional (teacher’s aide) at Millsap Elementary School are accused of knowingly subjecting three children in their care to abuse. The Probable Cause Affidavits connected with the cases against Bean and Dale state that three victims, referred to as MV1, MV2, and MV3, were reportedly subjected to abusive treatment that included mocking, taunting, inappropriate comments about their genitalia, extensive timeouts, emotional and verbal abuse, and physical threats of violence that escalated into actual violence.
The Abuse, Victim by Victim
MV1
Carissa Cornelius is mother of the victim identified within the affidavits as MV1. We know that this victim is a 10-year-old boy who is autistic and who has ‘little to no ability to speak or communicate.’ On March 4, Cornelius was notified by Millsap ISD Superintendent of an incident that occurred Feb. 18. It involved the verbal and physical assault of her son by Paxton Bean, who allegedly yelled at MV1 for chewing on a toy, which she then confiscated from him. Bean then reportedly threatened to hit the boy (videos supporting this claim have been widely circulated) and throw the toy at him, causing him to flinch, before she threw it at him hitting him in the face and chest. Cornelius later received a video, made surreptitiously by a classroom aide who then sent it to her, showing the assault happening.
In other incidents, brought to the awareness of investigators with the Parker County Sheriff’s Office through interviews, Dale and Bean subjected the victim to extensive “timeouts,” ranging anywhere from 15 to 40 minutes, made inappropriate comments about his ge****ls, and – reportedly two days in a row -- taunted him to the point he covered his ears and began rocking back and forth out of anxiety. Another time, according to witness interviews listed within the affidavit, he was spoken to in an excessively forceful and rushed manner to get ready to go home for the day; then, when he got his backpack on, he was locked outside the classroom while Bean was heard inside the classroom laughing at his stress and confusion. One witness said they believe Bean did this “for the fun of it.”
MV2
Whitney Price, mother of the victim identified as MV2 in the affidavit, approached police March 6 to report an injury to her child. According to the affidavit, Price said that she was contacted January 16 by Millsap Elementary School staff notifying her that her 8-year-old son “ran into a wall causing injury and bleeding from his nose.” Price then said she questioned her son, who has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and is moderately verbal. He told his mom that Ms. Bean punched him in the nose.
Upon reviewing the Millsap Elementary School Nurse’s Daily Log, police learned that on January 16, Bean took the boy to the school nurse’s office with what was described as a “gushing nosebleed.” Bean told the school nurse, Macie Moody, LVN, that the boy had inflicted an injury upon himself when he was in the “cool down” room and was “throwing a fit.” Bean stated that the child either ran into “her arm or a wall” with his nose, but she wasn’t sure.
Then, on March 12, the affidavit states the victim underwent a forensic interview at the Parker County Children’s Advocacy Center during which he was questioned about the nosebleed. Interviewers asked him if he had ever been hurt at school and who had hurt him. The child responded “Yes” and “Ms. Bean.” This victim was also subjected to excessively long 15-to-40-minute timeouts by Bean and Dale, according to two witness interviews included in the affidavit.
MV3
A witness interview given by a paraprofessional teacher’s aide, who worked alongside Dale and Bean, reportedly stated she witnessed the third victim, identified as MV3 in the affidavits, being subjected to verbal threats and verbal abuse by Dale. In one instance, the aide reported she witnessed Dale tell the child she wanted to “put her hands around the child’s neck and squeeze.”
In a statement, released March 15, the child’s mother says Dale told her daughter "Get away from me, I don't even like you. I want to put my hands around your neck and squeeze them hard." On another occasion, the aide says she observed Dale call the little girl a “bitch.”
A Mother Speaks Out
Trinity Garcia.jpeg Victoria Garcia
Victoria Garcia is the mother of 6-year-old Trinity, the victim known as MV3 in the affidavits. Garcia spoke with PCTThursday afternoon to fill us in on the alleged abuse, how she feels about the events, and how Trinity is faring considering what is going on. She explained that Trinity has Angelman’s syndrome and is completely non-verbal.
Despite this, Garcia said “By the grace of God she's doing okay. She has global developmental delay, speech impairment, she's epileptic. She also has ataxia, insomnia…I mean, she has a lot of different things, but cognitively she's only at like an 18-month-old level. So fortunately, when all this happened, she wasn't affected emotionally like maybe some of the other kids were. So, she is doing okay.”
Garcia told PCT she does think Trinity understood Bean’s abusive tone of voice but not the danger behind it.
“She understood her tone when it was said. When I give her redirection…she knows that she's being instructed and things like that, but as far as the actual context of what this teacher was saying to her, I don't think that she is aware of the malice of it.”
Garcia also explained another characterizing factor of Angelman’s syndrome that makes the abuse even more profound.
“With Angelman syndrome, one of their symptoms is also ‘happy demeanor.’ And everybody says ‘Oh, that's so great!’ … Yeah, but you know - when she's sick, it's so hard to tell. She doesn't show the same signs as neurotypical children,” Garcia said. “One time, she had a double ear infection and strep throat, and I barely noticed it because she was just so happy. So, just to think that someone would say that to her… It's just sickening. It's just…it's disgusting to think her teacher would do that.”
Garcia said she had no idea Bean could exhibit such behavior and that, if she were, she would have done things differently.
“I had no idea. I mean, obviously, if I would have known she was like that, I wouldn't have taken Trinity to school.”
She said she did sometimes question things she heard, but never imagined it would amount to the situation at hand.
“I questioned you know, just hearsay things here and there about…I mean every workplace you're in, there's always something that's like - this person's being petty. I knew that there was probably favoritism. It was a while before I realized that Paxton Bean was the principal's daughter, and I thought that was very odd. So, I'm sure that it was just a situation waiting to happen. Because if anything were to happen prior to this, there would have been no accountability because of the conflict of interest within the school.”
Garcia expressed gratitude toward the aide who made and then forwarded the video to Carissa Cornelius, the parent of the victim known as MV1, who first reported that her child was being mistreated.
“Otherwise, we would have had no idea that our children were being abused. [The aide] who actually took the video had gone to the assistant superintendent because she didn’t feel comfortable going to the principal because of the conflict of interest. [She] began to discuss what was happening and he immediately brought in Edie Martin, the [district] superintendent.”
Garcia said she was told the aide then showed Martin the video she made secretly that showed the abuse occurring and shared with her the other acts of violence taking place at the school. The aide was supposedly assured by Martin that she would report the incident, as she is required to do by law.
“And then they sent her on her way. And two weeks later, [the aide] who reported it went in to check and see how things were going. And that’s when Edie instructed [the aide] to delete the evidence. So, at that point in time, Edie had still not reported it to the authorities which, by the way, surpassed the 48-hour mandated reporting mark.”
The affidavits support Garcia’s statements.
Garcia also confirmed Edie Martin knew about the alleged abuse as early as February 19, but said it wasn’t until a coworker threatened to inform the authorities if Martin didn’t reach out immediately to families of the children involved that Martin contacted parents.
When Jennifer Dale was interviewed Mar. 14 by the Parker County Sheriff’s Office, she admitted she is the person depicted in the video swinging her hand at the victim known as MV1. Dean also admitted to making “crying noises” at the boy and possibly calling him a “crybaby”; however, Dale said none of this was done in a threatening manner. She did it all “playfully.”
Dale turned herself into the Palo Pinto County Jail this morning (Thursday., March 20) on a Parker County warrant. Dale is charged with Official Oppression, which is a Class A Misdemeanor.
Paxton Kendal Bean declined to give a statement to police regarding her actions. Bean also turned herself into the Parker County Sheriff’s Office this morning on a warrant also issued by Parker County. Bean was arrested and charged with Injury to a Child Disabled with Intentional Bodily Injury, a third-degree felony, and Official Oppression, a Class A Misdemeanor.
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