A Texas teacher was accused of putting her Covid 19-positive son in the trunk of her car to prevent being exposed to the virus, court documents show.
The woman faces a charge of child endangerment after she arrived at a Covid-19 testing site with the 13-year-old boy in the back of the vehicle, according to an arrest warrant filed Wednesday in Harris County District Court.
The woman is a high school English teacher who has been with the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District, northwest of Houston, since 2011, NBC affiliate KPRC of Houston reported.
She has been placed on administrative leave, the district said in a statement to NBC News.
In a separate statement obtained by KPRC, the district said local police were "alerted that a child was in the trunk of a car at a drive-thru COVID-19 testing site earlier this week. Law enforcement conducted a full investigation, resulting in a warrant for arrest. Thankfully, the child was not harmed.”
According to the warrant, the woman allegedly brought her son to a school district testing site at Houston's Pridgeon Stadium on Monday.
She allegedly told the district's director of health services, who was gathering information from people waiting at the drive-thru site, that he was in the trunk so that she didn't get exposed to the virus while driving, the warrant says.
The woman brought him there for additional testing after he tested positive earlier for an infection, the warrant says.
When the official asked to see the boy, the woman allegedly opened the trunk. The boy was lying down inside of it, the warrant says.
The official told the woman to put the boy in the back seat and dialed 911, the warrant says, adding that security video from a nearby middle school confirmed the official's account.
A warrant for the teacher's arrest was issued Wednesday. Online court records listed her as not in custody, though neither local police nor the district attorney's office immediately responded to requests for confirmation.
Efforts to reach the woman were unsuccessful Friday and it isn’t clear if she has a lawyer.