School worker with ‘far reaching’ impact dies after classroom accident, officials say

A beloved instructional assistant at a Texas high school died nearly two weeks after he was injured in a classroom, officials say.

Alfred “Mr. Fred” Jimenez had been employed with the Northside Independent School District since 2014 and worked with children with cognitive disabilities, the San Antonio district said in a statement.

The incident happened Feb. 7 in a Brandeis High School classroom as he was “attempting to redirect a student,” a district spokesperson told KSAT.

“In the course of the interaction with the student, the employee fell to the floor and sustained a head injury,” officials told the station.

Jimenez, 73, was taken to a hospital, where he died Saturday, Feb. 17, according to WOAI.

The school district said Jimenez was an instructional assistant in the high school’s Applied Learning Environment classroom, where he helped “to meet the specialized needs of students with moderate to severe cognitive disabilities.”

“The entire Bronco family is grieving his loss,” the district said in a statement. “His impact on the campus was far reaching and impacted students and staff both in and out of the classroom.”

This story was originally published February 20, 2024 at 7:36 AM with the headline "School worker with ‘far reaching’ impact dies after classroom accident, officials say."