Federal Lawsuit Alleges Teacher Abuse, Cover-Up at Bernalillo Elementary

A 10-year-old student sat at her desk at Bernalillo Elementary School and urinated herself after her fifth-grade teacher refused to let her use the restroom. The teacher's response, according to a federal lawsuit filed Jan. 27 in U.S. District Court for New Mexico, was to tell the girl to "suck it up with a straw."

That detail is among the most stark in a complaint alleging that Melanie Jean Martinez, who taught fifth grade at Bernalillo Elementary from 2018 to 2023, subjected the child to months of physical abuse and racist verbal attacks. The federal lawsuit is separate from a related state court case that settled earlier this month, though Bernalillo Public Schools officials have not disclosed the terms of that settlement.

The complaint alleges Martinez grabbed the girl by the wrist and neck, threw books at her, and called her "disgusting," "stupid" and "different." Martinez allegedly told the student, whose mother is from Mexico, that she was "some kind of animal," that she "comes from an idiot family," and that "Jesus was coming for everyone but her." In written statements submitted to the New Mexico Public Education Department and included in the federal complaint, former students allege Martinez called a student of color a racial slur, showed students photos containing nudity, and displayed photos from the girl's mother's Instagram account to the class to mock the child's appearance. Students also told PED investigators that Martinez texted them outside of school and threatened them if they reported her conduct.

"It's traumatic," said Julio Romero, an attorney for the plaintiff.

The lawsuit names BPS Deputy Superintendent Eric James and former Bernalillo Elementary principal Jayme Schutte as defendants. The plaintiff's attorneys allege both officials ignored Martinez's prior disciplinary history when she was hired and failed to act appropriately as she accumulated infractions at BPS. According to reporting on the complaint, James recommended Martinez for a district position around the same time she was terminated by another employer identified in the filing only by the acronym EPS.

Personnel files and PED investigation records obtained from public records reveal that the district's own HR director worked for years to keep Martinez in the classroom despite a mounting record of misconduct, and actively blocked discipline attempts by her principal. Fifth-grade classmates of the girl documented the ongoing abuse, adding to the body of evidence now before the federal court.

A person identified in reporting only as Marano defended the district's handling of the situation. "That's the normal, standard procedure for any district when dealing with a personnel matter, and especially a classroom teacher," Marano said. "It sounds like they went through the correct process." Officials have not publicly identified the district's HR director referenced in the internal documents, and no statement from Martinez or her legal counsel appears in the court record made available so far.

The federal complaint expands significantly on the allegations that drove the now-settled state case, and with personnel files and PED records entered into the public record, the full scope of what administrators knew about Martinez, and when, is now a central question in the federal litigation.