Simon Galvez (KTRK screenshots)
A 78-year-old janitor in Texas was hospitalized after he was allegedly attacked by a “completely naked” student and brutally beaten for refusing to let the nude 17-year-old into the school. The student, whose name has not been released due to his age, was taken into custody on Friday and charged with one count of assault of a public servant, the school district announced.
According to a statement from the Aldine Independent School District (ISD), Simon Galvez on Friday, Jan. 12 was assaulted by a student while working outside of Dwight D. Eisenhower High School in Houston.
“Aldine ISD does not condone this sort of behavior and anyone who engages in this sort of behavior will face serious disciplinary consequences,” the district said in a statement. “The student was arrested by the Aldine ISD Police and was determined to be under the influence. The Harris County District Attorney’s Office charged the student with assault of a public servant and the student will also face disciplinary action per the district’s Student Code of Conduct.”
Galvez provided additional details about the attack in an interview with Houston ABC affiliate KTRK.
According to the report, Galvez said he was working outside at about 10 a.m. when he noticed a male student who was completely naked coming toward him. Galvez said he thought the student might be in some kind of trouble, and was about to call security when the student asked to be let into the school.
“I told him, ‘No.’ It was the only word exchanged,” Galvez told the station. “I started to walk away, and then he grabbed me with one hand and started hitting me in the face with the other.”
Galvez, who had reportedly been working at the school for more than two decades, said that he was completely overpowered and was only able to survive the onslaught by pretending he was dead.
“After the last blow, he started to choke me. He put both hands around my neck,” Galvez said. “He came over to look at me on the ground, and he thought he’d done it. He thought I was dead.”
Only two years away from retirement, Galvez said he refused to let the naked teen into the school for the sake of the students’ safety.
“I was just thinking about the security of the school and put my life at risk for it,” he told KTRK.
The janitor said that in addition to the myriad bruises covering his face, he also suffered a sprained ankle and a dislocated finger as a result of the incident.
Galvez’s wife also spoke to the station, calling her husband’s attacker “a monster” for leaving her husband in that condition.
“It destroyed me because I thought he was going to die,” she said through tears. “That’s what I said when I saw him, ‘He’s going to die.”
