Mikaela Priest
Introduction
Mikaela Beth Priest, a kindergarten teacher at Hendricks Elementary School in Anna ISD, a suburb north of Dallas, was booked into the Collin County Jail in October 2025 and charged with injury to a child, a third-degree felony, after a classroom incident left a five-year-old student with bruising her mother said looked like finger imprints. The district had already removed Priest from her duties and placed her on administrative leave pending investigation — and by October 10, 2025 confirmed she was no longer employed there. She posted bond and the investigation remains active; no trial outcome has been reported.
Background Information
The incident happened during a class activity when Priest’s five-year-old student tried to take back a paper another child had grabbed, according to reporting on the case. Priest allegedly intervened by grabbing the girl’s arm and directing her to a timeout chair. During recess that day, another teacher saw the marks on the child’s arm and alerted administrators, triggering an internal review of Priest’s classroom. The child’s mother, Danielle Broomfield, said the marks looked like finger imprints and took about five days to heal.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Charged, not convicted. Priest faces a third-degree felony injury-to-a-child count. The allegation is unadjudicated and she is presumed innocent.
Broomfield told FOX 4 News she broke down when she learned what had happened. “My heart broke. Especially when they’re saying that she told them the teacher did it,” Broomfield said, recounting that her daughter had identified her teacher as the person who left the marks. The school, Broomfield said, “is supposed to be a safe place. The teachers aren’t supposed to be the bullies. So it breaks my heart that you know somebody could do something like that… I hope that there’s no lasting trauma for my daughter.” Anna ISD quickly removed Priest from her duties pending its investigation and confirmed by October 10, 2025 that she was no longer employed by the district.
The Collin County Sheriff’s Office told FOX News that Priest had no record of prior violent offenses. A LinkedIn profile that appeared to belong to Priest — since removed or set to private — indicated she previously taught in Princeton ISD under her maiden name and had earned an intern-level teaching certification only months before the incident.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The case circulated through North Texas in October 2025 as a parent’s account: Broomfield’s interviews describing finger-imprint bruises on a kindergartner’s arm and a child who told her family the teacher did it. Anna ISD’s response was swift by district standards — removal from the classroom, administrative leave, and separation within roughly a week of the incident surfacing — while the criminal charge moved separately through Collin County. The Texas Education Agency did not respond to the Dallas Express’s request for comment on whether Priest’s teaching certification was under review.
Current Status
Priest has since posted bond, and the investigation remains active as of the latest reporting. No trial date, plea or disposition has been publicly reported, and the felony charge remains pending with Priest presumed innocent. Her separation from Anna ISD stands regardless of the criminal outcome.
Impact on Their Career/Life
A kindergarten classroom is about the most trust-dense environment in a public school — five-year-olds who cannot fully tell their parents what happened to them — and Priest’s case became the local example of what happens when that trust visibly breaks: a felony charge, a same-week separation from the district, and a mother describing finger imprints that took five days to fade. For Priest, a teacher of less than a year’s certification standing in the district, the felony charge and firing effectively end any Texas classroom career whatever the court decides.
Sources
- Dallas Express, “Anna ISD Teacher Charged With Felony After Allegedly Injuring 5-Year-Old Student” — source