Background: Bell’s Hill Elementary School in Waco, Texas (Google Maps). Inset: Amber Escamilla (McLennan County Jail).
A Texas woman who was employed as an elementary school teacher is accused of using an electronic dog whistle on one of her students to manage his behavior.
According to arrest records obtained by KWTX, a local CBS affiliate, 46-year-old Amber Escamilla was arrested on Tuesday and charged with causing injury to a child or a disabled person. The records indicated that Escamilla was the educator of a 6-year-old boy with autism and allegedly used an electronic dog whistle “when he got overstimulated.” The documents revealed that the child’s parents informed police that their son wore earmuffs to school due to his heightened sensitivity to loud sounds.
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KWTX reported that detectives from the Waco Independent School District were notified by Child Protective Services about potential abuse of a student at Bell’s Hill Elementary School. The arrest documents noted that in November 2024, Escamilla allegedly “entered the break room and placed a device on the table, mentioning to co-workers that she utilized it for when the victim ‘gets loud.””
The school’s principal told detectives that she confiscated an electronic dog whistle from Escamilla the same month.
When Escamilla was asked about the device, she reportedly told detectives that she only intended to use the dog whistle outdoors, and that she had only ever used it once at the school’s playground. She further told detectives, per the arrest documents, that “she would only exhibit the whistle to the victim as a threat to gain compliance.”
However, KWTX reported that on Monday, a witness met with detectives and said in a sworn statement that in September 2024, “she entered the defendant’s classroom and observed the defendant utilizing the electronic whistle to gain compliance of the victim.”
What she reportedly witnessed, according to police, was “the child covering his ears and pleading for the defendant to stop. The defendant utilized the whistle a second time in which the victim responded in the same way.” She added that the boy was “visibly in pain” due to his sensitivity to sound.
In a statement to KWTX, a spokeswoman from Waco Independent School District said that Escamilla was no longer employed at Bell’s Hill Elementary School and had worked there for less than a year.
Escamilla was charged with injury to a child or disabled person charge and jailed on $3,000 bond. As of Thursday, her name did not appear on an inmate listing for the McLennan County Sheriff’s Office.
