Family Alleges Bronte ISD Employee Dragged Autistic Doy; DA Declines Charges

BRONTE, TX — Family members of a 9-year-old nonverbal autistic boy allege a Bronte ISD employee dragged him off a porch and across hot concrete in May, but Coke County authorities declined to file assault charges, citing insufficient bodily harm. 

Kendra McIntire, the boy’s mother, and Lindsey McIntire, his aunt, described the incident in recent Facebook posts. They identified the employee as Michelle Penner. The school contacted Coke County deputies, showed them video of the incident and, along with the Bronte ISD superintendent, requested assault charges be filed, according to Lindsey McIntire’s post. 

The Coke County district attorney declined to pursue the case because there was not “enough bodily harm,” the family reported. The matter was also referred to the district attorney’s office in San Angelo, which likewise took no action, Kendra McIntire wrote. 

The video shows the employee talking to the child, who is sitting on a porch at the school before she grabs him and drags him to his feet. The child refuses to walk and collapses onto the sidewalk, where she then starts to drag him by one arm before struggling to pick him up and carry him.

In a message exchange shared by the family, Penner apologized for her actions involving the child. She wrote that she “got mad at myself,” should have called for help, and that the child “didn’t deserve to have been treated that way.” She added that an officer told her the boy was “still having a hard time with this” and that she was “truly sorry.”

Kendra McIntire said she waited until this week to post publicly about the May incident. She wrote that her son “can't speak or stick up for himself” and that the family “did everything the legal way and they still failed my boy.”