A 22-year-old kindergarten teacher was killed and five children were hospitalized after a tragic car accident occurred while picking up and dropping off students after a children's holiday performance, police said.
The school teacher, named Alexia Rosales, was hit by two cars and pinned under the car outside Exceldo Montessori Plus School on Thursday. News 4 San Antonio reported.
Around 4:15 p.m., the mother put her child in her car and “for some reason accelerated into another vehicle,” Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar told reporters.
Police said the parent's car collided with another car, pushing both cars into the fence where Rosales and the students were playing outside.
Rosales, 22, had been pinned under the car for “a period of time,” the sheriff said. Fire officials used a hydraulic lift to lift the vehicle, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
“[She was] I’m protecting my baby,” said Rosales’ mother Berenice. told the Daily Mail Through sobs. “You could tell she was a teacher at heart.”
“[The students] They always wanted to be around her because they loved her so much,” she added.
Five children injured in the accident were rushed to area hospitals in various conditions, Salazar said.
Alicia, another teacher who was outside with the children, was hospitalized and required 12 stitches to her forehead and a cut to her skull, she told the Daily Mail.
After the car crashed, she became stranded under a fence gate, but was able to hand some of her children over to a bystander.
“We were playing outside with the kids and I found myself looking up at the sky,” she told the magazine.
“The babies were fine,” she said.
Salazar said police do not believe there was any criminal intent, noting that the driver who caused the crash “has a past medical history that may have contributed to the accident.”
“At this time, we do not believe this has anything to do with intoxication or any crime,” he said.
Excelred Montessori Plus was closed on Friday as the school community mourned the death of a “beloved” teacher.
“Alexia was more than just a teacher, she was a bright light in all of our lives. Her smile, laughter, and boundless love for children and those around her made our school a great place. It felt like a second home.” school officials said.
school Launched a GoFundMe To feed her family.
Rosales had a passion for teaching and pursued a degree while working part-time at the school's daycare, despite her parents' concerns about making money from her education, her family said. .
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.”
