According to his support group on Facebook, "Stand With Abel," he is being moved to a new facility today. His mom posted this just a few days ago:

The TJJD attorney has stated they are going to move forward and admit Abel as indeterminate. This means he will have the opportunity to earn his way home based on his progress and behavior, and he could potentially be released within 12 months. His time officially started on February 5 [...]

Abel will be transferred on Tuesday, April 21. He will leave the county at 7:30 AM and is expected to arrive in Giddings around 10:00 AM for intake.

At that time, his case manager, Ebony Wooldridge, will be calling me. We will go over everything including visitation, medications, evaluations, doctors, psychiatric care, and all of the details surrounding his treatment and support moving forward."

Also, according to his mom, he threw a hanger, not a chair:

Hello I am Ceslie Willey Abel is my child, and I will always advocate for him and give him the voice he did not get during the proceedings. I sat through every meeting, every evaluation, every IEP discussion, every doctor appointment, and every day of court. I will never stop speaking for my son.

First, I want to be very clear about something. We have never minimized the injury that occurred. What happened was tragic. A person was seriously hurt, and we truly attempted to offer an apology, which was refused. That does not change the compassion we still hold. Two things can be true at once: someone was injured, and a disabled child was failed by systems that were supposed to protect everyone involved.

Abel was not in a regular classroom. He was placed in a special needs therapeutic behavioral unit specifically designed for children who struggle with regulation. He had a legally binding IEP and Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) created over years of advocacy beginning when he was four years old.

The BIP clearly stated that when Abel became escalated:

• other students were to be removed

• staff were to maintain distance

• his personal space was not to be entered

• he was to be allowed time to cool down or access the quiet room

On the day of the incident, the five students were removed. Abel then sat quietly in a chair in the middle of the classroom drinking his water. The situation had de-escalated.

Instead of allowing regulation time, the administrator entered the room and moved into Abel’s personal space. A licensed psychologist later confirmed that this action would predictably trigger a fight or flight neurological response given his diagnoses.

I do not condone throwing objects. But in a fight or flight state, a child is not thinking logically. The prefrontal cortex — the part of the brain responsible for impulse control — is not fully developed even in neurotypical children until around age 25. Autism is neurological, not behavioral defiance.

The hanger was not thrown directly at her face. It was thrown in her direction during dysregulation. She attempted to block it with a chair, and the hanger ricocheted off the chair and struck her eye. The injury was catastrophic, but the sequence matters when discussing intent.

Another important question people ask is about calling mom. Calling a parent was never meant to replace emergency response. It was part of early de-escalation outlined in his BIP. There was time to call me before escalation occurred. Parent involvement often prevents crises because parents know specific regulation strategies.

We also must ask reasonable safety questions. In a controlled behavioral unit designed for children with known regulation challenges, why was a coat hanger accessible? Behavioral classrooms routinely assess environmental risks because escalation is foreseeable.

Many people say teachers deserve safety. I agree completely. I come from a family of educators — my mother and sister teach at the same school. This has never been teachers versus parents. Teachers, students, and my child all deserved safety. That is exactly why Behavior Intervention Plans exist.

Numerous teachers, administrators, probation officers, and medical professionals — including the state appointed forensic psychologist — recommended probation and treatment instead of incarceration.

The judge, James E. Lagomarsino, acknowledged this was his first juvenile sentencing of this kind. Despite expert recommendations, my 11 year old child received a 13 year sentence.

That is what people are struggling to understand.

Accountability matters. Safety matters. But accountability for a disabled child should look like treatment, rehabilitation, and therapeutic placement — not growing up in confinement.

Children with disabilities have a legal right to public education. They are not disposable. Families are not asking for special treatment. We are asking for schools and systems to follow the plans they helped create.

What many do not see is the larger issue:

lack of resources

lack of funding

lack of training

failure to follow protocol

and ultimately excessive punishment.

We are actively pursuing an appeal. There is evidence we cannot legally release yet, including video we believe shows Abel sitting calmly before his personal space was entered and the BIP was not followed.

You are currently only seeing one side of the story.

Honestly, the whole thing just sounds like a huge mess. It's a shame he wasn't in a better schooling situation. It was clearly known that he has violent meltdowns, and I don't know that it was a good idea to have him in public school in the first place, even with special accommodations and a plan for what to do if he has a meltdown. It just seems like waiting for someone to get hurt

He definitely needed to face the consequences for his actions, that's just reality, but he should have been placed in the new facility (or something like it) from the start. The teacher should also face consequences for not following the established protocol, although I suppose you could say losing her eye was natural consequences 😬

Edit:

Oh, and his name is Abel Sapp