A 22-year-old Texas preschool teacher was killed and five children were hospitalized in a tragic car crash during student pickup following a children’s holiday performance, according to police.
The teacher, identified as Alexia Rosales, was struck by two vehicles and pinned underneath a car outside the Excelled Montessori Plus School on Thursday, News 4 San Antonio reported.
Around 4:15 p.m., a mother had loaded her children in a vehicle and “for whatever reason, accelerated into another car,” Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar told reporters.
That parent’s car smashed into another vehicle, and the two vehicles were forced into a fence where Rosales and students were playing outside, police said.
Rosales, 22, was pinned beneath a car for “some time,” the sheriff said. Fire officials lifted the vehicle with a hydraulic lift and she was declared dead at the scene.
“[She was] protecting the baby,” Rosales’ mother, Berenice, told the Daily Mail through sobs. “You can tell she was a teacher from the heart.”
“[The students] love her so much, they always wanted to be around her,” she added.
Five children who were hurt in the crash were rushed to area hospitals in varying conditions, Salazar said.
Another teacher, Alicia, who had been outside with the children, was hospitalized and received 12 stitches on her forehead where she told the Daily Mail she had a gash down to her skull.
She was pinned under the fence gate after the cars collided and was able to hand off some of the children to bystanders.
“We were outside playing with the kids, and next thing I know, I was looking up at the sky,” she told the outlet.
The “babies were okay,” she said.
Salazar said police do not believe there was any criminal intent, and noted the driver who caused the accident “does have a past medical history that may have contributed to this.”
“At this point, we don’t believe it has anything to do with intoxication or any sort of criminality,” he said.
Excelled Montessori Plus was closed on Friday as the school community grieved for the “beloved” teacher.
“Alexia wasn’t just a teacher — she was a bright light in all our lives. Her smile, laughter, and boundless love for the children and everyone around her made our school feel like a second home,” school officials said.
The school launched a GoFundMe to help support her family.
Rosales had a passion for teaching and, despite her parents’ worries about making money in education, she was pursuing her degree while working part-time at the school’s day care, according to her family.
She was set 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.”
