Parents are outraged and are filing a lawsuit after a white teacher accused of attacking his four-year-old son kept his job for six months while the school hid the incident from police

A 73-year-old Texas preschool teacher has been arrested for a serious crime more than six months after being accused of physically abusing a four-year-old black child in her care, police said.

Linda Ann Dueer, a white woman, was charged with third-degree aggravated assault following the alleged attack on November 3, 2023, at Princeton ISD’s Canup Early Childhood Center in Princeton, Texas, north of Dallas.

The incident was captured on video and reportedly shows Dueer grabbing the little boy, slamming him against a wall and then nearly knocking him off his feet, family members said after seeing the disturbing footage.

The school did not immediately report the incident to police and allowed Dueer to remain on duty for six more months before she was finally taken into custody on May 14.

Both parents said they thought the teacher would be arrested immediately. But then several months went by without them hearing anything about the case, so they called Princeton police to get an update. To their horror, they discovered the school had never informed them.

“Even the lieutenant said, ‘I don’t understand why they didn’t contact us,'” Gregory Thomas said, according to CBS News Texas.

The Collin County School District confirmed that Dueer was placed on administrative leave the day of her arrest, but officials did not say whether she is still receiving her regular pay more than two weeks later.

Nor was there any immediate indication – even after charges were filed against her on March 28 – that Dueer had ever been reprimanded or suspended from school for the incident.

The prosecution accuses Dueer of causing physical harm to a child through intentional bodily harm.

At a court hearing the day after her arrest, Dueer’s bail was set at $20,000 and she was released from jail pending trial.

The child’s parents, Gregory and Salam Thomas, sued the school district that same week, claiming that the school administration never reported the abuse to police and seeking unspecified damages for the pain and suffering their son Aaron suffered, which they said had devastated them.

“I’m really shocked,” Salam Thomas told CBS News Texas. “I’m shocked. I think the United States needs to do more to protect its children.”

“It still breaks my heart to this day knowing that I wasn’t there to protect my son,” Gregory Thomas told the news agency.

The couple said Aaron has not been the same since he started attending the school.

“It changed him,” Gregory Thomas said of the incident. “He doesn’t like sleeping alone. He’s scared.”

Back in November, when the alleged abuse occurred, the school notified parents that their son had been locked out during recess, adding that there was a video of the incident and asking them to come in person to view it.

The Thomases were not prepared for what they saw.

“She grabbed him and threw him around, against the wall, said something to him. And then she hit him, almost knocked him over,” Gregory Thomas said. “I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe she did that.”