A 22-year-old preschool teacher has died and five children have been hospitalized in a tragic car accident while picking up students after a children’s holiday performance, according to police.
The school teacher, identified as Alexia Rosales, was hit by two vehicles and buried under a car outside the Excelled Montessori Plus School on Thursday. News 4 San Antonio reported,
At about 4:15 p.m., a mother loaded her children into a vehicle and “for whatever reason, rapidly got into another car,” Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar told reporters.
Police said the parents’ car collided with another vehicle and both vehicles were pushed into a fence where Rosales and the student were playing outside.
Rosales, 22, was pinned under a car for “some time,” the sheriff said. Fire officials lifted the vehicle with a hydraulic lift and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
“(She) was protecting the child,” Rosales’ mother, Berenice, said. told the daily mail Through sobs. “You could tell she was a teacher at heart.”
“(The students) loved him so much, they always wanted to be around him,” he said.
Salazar said five children injured in the crash were taken to area hospitals in varying conditions.
Another teacher, Alicia, who was out with the children, was admitted to hospital and received 12 stitches on her forehead, where she told the Daily Mail that she had suffered a laceration to her scalp.
She was trapped under the gate of the fence after the cars collided and was able to hand some of the children to bystanders.
“We were outside playing with the kids, and the next thing I knew, I was looking up at the sky,” she told the outlet.
“The kids were fine,” she said.
Salazar said police do not believe there was any criminal intent, and that the driver who caused the crash “had a prior medical history that may have contributed to it.”
“At this point, we do not believe this has anything to do with drugs or any type of criminality,” he said.
The excellent Montessori Plus was closed on Friday as the school community mourned a “beloved” teacher.
“Alexia was not just a teacher – she was a bright light throughout our lives. His smile, laughter and immense love for the children and everyone around him made our school feel like a second home,” school officials said,
School Launched a GoFundMe To help support his family.
Rosales had a passion for teaching and despite her parents’ concerns about funding her education, she pursued her degree while working part-time at the school’s day care, according to her family.
She was scheduled to graduate next year.
“She was an angel, she never gave me any problems,” her mother told The Daily Mail. “All she did was study and work… She was born to be a teacher.”
(TagstoTranslate)US news(T)car accidents(T)deaths(T)preschool(T)teachers(T)Texas
