A teacher in Houston Texas is now facing felony charges after her son was discovered in the trunk of her car at a Covid-19 testing site.
41-year-old Sarah Beam was at the Pridgeon Stadium Covid-19 testing site to get tested for Covid-19 when Bevin Gordon, the director of health for the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District discovered Beam's 13 year old son was in the trunk of her car.
Beam reportedly kept her son in the car because he had tested positive for Covid-19.
Beam wanted to isolate herself from him on the way to the testing site where she was planning on having him get tested again. The high school educator decided the trunk was the best place to put her son.
Houston NBC affiliate KPRC 2 Click2Houston reported on the story.
According to court records, when Gordon requested to see the child, Beam opened the trunk of her car to reveal her son lying down, without restraints.
Gordon then informed Beam she would not administer the test until the child was moved to the back seat of the car, after which she immediately called the police.
After police made multiple visits to her home only to find her away, Beam was subsequently arrested and charged with endangering a child.
She posted her $1,500 bond this past Saturday.
The Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District—where Beam has been a teacher since 2011—released a statement on the matter.
"Law enforcement conducted a full investigation resulting in a warrant for arrest."
"Thankfully, the child was not harmed."
Viewer's reacted in horror to the story on KPRC 2's YouTube page.
"All it would've taken to change this entire situation was one distracted driver to rear end them at a stop light being on their phone. This would've been a story about how a mother killed her child by doing this.
"Whoever agrees with this needs to have CPS visit their home and perform a mental evaluation on you immediately and have your children removed from the home until you're proven cognitive."- BassRanger 10.
"If, in her mind, sticking a kid in the trunk was ok, then this isn't her FIRST time. For her and anyone else that thinks this is a solution, it isn't. This is a despicable habit."- Deb Gordon.
"A 13-year-old is old enough to stay home alone, quarantined in their room for the amount of time needed for her to go get tested and come back."
"If this child really needed to be in the car with her during this trip, all she had to do was have them both wear masks, and sit as far away as possible from each other in the car."
"She could have also gotten an at home test which would've prevented her from needing to go anywhere as well as needing to bring her son anywhere with her."- Inactive.
"Drive with the windows down! Poor kid."- goldngrl1.
"Just goes to show you that a college education doesn't exactly make one smart !!!! If there was a woman at her house, why didn't she just leave her son home?"
"At 13 he's definitely old enough to know to stay on his room so he doesn't infect anyone else!! In my opinion, what she did is deplorable and she should be arrested for it!"- Robin Cardin.
Some were particularly horrified by the fact Beam was a teacher, fearing for the health and safety of her students given how she treated her own child.
"If she’ll treat her own child like that just imagine how she treats the kids in her classroom. This is horrifying."- Mozilla.
"This is the kind of creature we hire to teach our children how to function in this world ... no wonder people in the US despise education and learning and intellect."- Senya Means.
"WOW! And these are the kind of people teaching your children. I guess it goes to show you that anyone can become teacher these days."- Deb Dellinger.
"She's a teacher BTW. This lunatic is the kind of person teaching your kids."- Johann der Jäger
"As a teacher she should have had child abuse/neglect trainings so the fact that she did this is just bizarre."- Cassandra.
Beam is currently on administrative leave from Cypress Falls High School, where she teaches English.
While Beam's story has resulted in a lot of anger and disgust on social media, she has received a surprising amount of support from her local community.
Following her arrest, Beam's home was adorned with posters of love and support, including an impassioned letter taped to a window on her house.
"To whom it may concern, the people who know Ms. Beam know the intentions in her heart and value her work and dedication in everything she does."
"I hope all these misunderstandings go away soon, and the truth comes out."
The district attorney's office has given no further updates on Beam's case, nor did the court records name an attorney for Beam.
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