Former North Texas teacher indicted after allegedly encouraging students to fight

A former Mesquite Independent School District substitute teacher was indicted by a Dallas County grand jury Tuesday on four separate counts of endangering a child after she was accused of encouraging students to fight.

Natally Garcia was fired and arrested in April after video showed she arranged fights between students in her classroom at Kimbrough Middle School, according to police and school officials.

Garcia had only been employed for a month, WFAA-TV reported, and according to a student, moved desks to give more students room to fight.

School administrators called the parents of each student in the classroom to notify them of the incident.

District officials also sent a letter to parents, saying, “As educators, our hearts are heavy knowing that an individual entrusted with the supervision and care of our students could behave in this manner, and we share the disgust that the families of students in this class must feel.”

Investigators determined that Garcia’s actions placed four students in danger of bodily injury, Mesquite police said.