Teacher's aide in Texas accused of hitting special needs teen

MANVEL, Texas -- A teacher's aide has been arrested, accused of injuring a non-verbal autistic student at a treatment center in Manvel, Texas.

Cellphone video believed to have been taken inside a classroom at Shiloh Treatment Center shows the aide appearing to slap a 13-year-old named Nicco.

Byron Ramon Criddle, 46, has been charged with injury to a child.

"You have to pick on a little child who is defenseless and can't speak and defend themselves, who can't speak and tell someone," said Nicco's mother, Habebah Gaber. "You're pretty low."

Gaber turned to Eyewitness News after she says another special needs student gave her the cellphone video.

"She told me that it happens all the time. He is constantly hitting my son," Gaber said. "That she witnessed him with keys between his knuckles, punching my son in the head, punching him in the stomach, kicking him, pinching him."

Criddle has been fired from the Shiloh Treatment Center, where he has been working with special needs children for 13 years. Investigators believe there could be more victims, unable to speak out.

"My son is just love. It doesn't matter who hurt him, my son is still going to love them," Gaver said. "That's all he can express is love."

Criddle is being held on $35,000 bond.

An attorney for Shiloh Treatment Center released the following statement Friday night: