In September 2024, Courtney Walker’s 6-year-old son was a student at Tomball ISD’s Grand Oaks Elementary when he was allegedly injured by a teacher’s aide.
TOMBALL, Texas — Former Tomball ISD teacher’s aide Journee Mitchell is facing allegations of abuse in the classroom.
She’s charged with injury to a child after being accused of holding a table against a 6-year-old boy’s stomach to restrain him. The boy’s family said he has autism, and the incident has had a detrimental effect on him; they believe the current charges don’t go far enough.
In September 2024, Courtney Walker’s 6-year-old son was a student at Tomball ISD’s Grand Oaks Elementary. He’s since been removed from school.
“We have good days and we have bad days. More bad days than anything,” Walker said about how the incident has impacted her son.
Walker said her son, despite having autism, had a good start at school last year. But about a month later, his behavior changed for the worse both at school and at home. Walker said her son was eventually able to tell her a teacher had hurt him.
“He got behind a table, and because she didn’t want to keep trying to transition him. She held the table up to his groin. My son was screaming ‘stop’ the entire time,” Walker said.
She said video surveillance from inside the classroom confirmed what happened, and it ultimately led to charges being filed. However, the initial charges of injury to a disabled person were dropped and changed to injury to a child — reckless injury.
It’s a shift that doesn’t sit right with the child’s grandmother, Tanya Walker.
“She deserves to be in jail. She knew what she was doing, and she knew it was wrong,” Tanya Walker said.
The district attorney’s office couldn’t elaborate on the reasoning behind the change in the charge, but said a grand jury ultimately made the call and couldn’t provide specifics as the case is still ongoing.
“I don’t think the other parents in the classroom knew what was going on,” Courtney Walker said. “The DA told us that none of the other parents wanted to come forward and press charges. To me, that doesn’t make sense.”
She’s now concerned there’s more to be uncovered.
In a statement to KHOU 11 Tomball ISD said:
The safety of our students is our top priority in Tomball ISD. An investigation was launched during the 2024-25 school year following a report of alleged unprofessional behavior towards a student by an employee at Grand Oaks Elementary. Upon being made aware of this isolated matter, the District immediately initiated an investigation. The employee was removed from her position and has not been employed with the district since. Harris County Precinct 4 Constable’s Office along with Texas Child Protective Services were also immediately notified and conducted independent investigations. All employee misconduct allegations are taken seriously and promptly investigated thoroughly. Tomball ISD has zero tolerance for employee misconduct. Again, the safety of our students in Tomball ISD is our number one priority. At this time, Tomball ISD has no further comment regarding this investigation, which has been handed over to law enforcement.