Parents of disabled Plano student urge council to seek accountability after alleged classroom abuse

During the public comment period at Tuesday’s Plano City Council meeting, family members of a 19‑year‑old nonverbal student, Saniya Reese, urged the council to seek accountability and to investigate delayed police handling of the case.

Westia Nelson, Saniya’s mother, said video and audio footage, medical documentation and an Adult Protective Services finding show a teacher — identified in her remarks as Sharon Roseborough — used force that she described as abusive, including bending fingers backward and lifting the student by the neck. Nelson said the family has the video evidence and urged the council to “publicly support the indictment and prosecution of Sharon Roseborough” and to “initiate a transparent review into why Plano Police withheld a complete felony case nearly a year.”

Alvin Nelson, Saniya’s father, told the council the police held the completed felony case for 303 days before forwarding it to the district attorney and that the family received only a victim support mailing after a long delay. He compared the timeline in Plano with other Collin County jurisdictions where he said arrests or indictments followed quickly.

Harper Weaver, who said she ran for school board, said she had viewed the videos and found them “horrible,” and expressed concern that the nearly 350‑day delay was unjust and might relate to the student’s inability to speak for herself.

Council did not take formal action on the complaints during the meeting. Family speakers asked the council to publicly support indictment and to review internal communication processes so disabled victims receive timely attention; they requested clearer accountability from police and school leadership.