An El Paso mom was recently arrested after she snuck into her daughter’s school and pretended to be her. When you first hear about this, you would never think it could happen but it did. The reason by the mom makes sense but it really was not worth sneaking into school.
Casey Garcia posed as a middle school student and wanted to test the security of the school’s campus.
On Thursday, June 3, Garcia recorded herself while at her daughter’s school in the San Elizario School District. After Garcia walked around the school, dressed in a hoodie and skinny jeans while wearing a mask, she uploaded the video to YouTube. The video has already gone viral with over 200,000 views which you can see.
“I didn’t do this to get views. I didn’t do this to get likes. I didn’t do this so people could be mad at me and I could never walk around El Paso again,” Garcia said. “I wanted to see if I could make it the entire day (at school) without anybody noticing.”
“I did this to prove a point, I’m a parent, I proved that I could get through the public school system and I made it without any problem. We need better security at our schools,” she said.
During lunch, Garcia said in her video, “I’ve been here all day, face-to face with teachers.”
Garcia made it the entire day and attended the classes and ate lunch in the cafeteria until the last teacher called her out. Some students realized she wasn’t a student but didn’t mention anything to teachers.
This mom proved a point but it will cost her time in jail and money for bail. Her bond was set at $7,908 which is a high price to test out the school’s security.
Investigators met with the school officials and Garcia was arrested on two counts. She was arrested for trespassing and tampering with government records.
The El Paso news media covered the arrest of Casey Garcia.
Garcia said she wasn’t trying to break the law but wanted to run her social experiment to see if anyone would notice she wasn’t a student. She wanted to prove students were vulnerable to threats including mass shootings.
In the video, Garcia said, “We need better security at our schools. This is what I tried to prove. I don’t mean to be curt, but I kind of feel like I proved it.”
She added: “There have been way too many mass shootings. The first one should have never happened. We need metal detectors. I don’t think backpacks are a good idea.”
San Elizario Independent School District Superintendent Jeannie Meza-Chavez said the district would review its security measures after Garcia’s arrest. This will likely spread to other school districts in the El Paso Independent School District to tighten up their own security measures and procedures.
“While there was a breach in security by an individual associated as a parent with the school … we want to assure you that our security measures are being reviewed and evaluated,” Meza-Chavez commented.
“I’ll talk to you once I’m inside,” said Garcia, sporting a yellow hoodie, jeans, sneakers, glasses, and a black face mask. “Do I look like a seventh-grader? No? Cool. Awesome.” (Jail records show Garcia is 4 feet 11 inches tall and weighs 105 pounds.)
The Washington Post released data that said since the Columbine massacre in 1999, there have been more than 248,000 children at 260 schools experienced gun violence. Schools have increased security by adding locked doors, security cameras, hallway supervision, and other measures to provide more safety for students and staff.