HIDALGO COUNTY. TX. (THECOUNT) — Diana Treviño-Montelongo, of Mission, Texas, has been identified as the elementary school teacher arrested in the hot car death of a 5-year-old child on the La Joya ISD campus last month.
Treviño-Montelongo, 37, was arrested and charged her with criminal negligent homicide in connection to the death of a 5-year-old boy who was found unresponsive in a hot car and died at a La Joya ISD campus last month.
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Treviño-Montelongo was booked in the Hidalgo County Jail Thursday on a $50,000 bond and released the same day.
Treviño-Montelongo is a relative of the boy who died and she teaches at Dr. Americo Paredes Elementary in Mission, where the child was found after a 911 call, reports myrgv.
A La Joya ISD spokesperson said Thursday that Treviño-Montelongo is on paid administrative leave, and that the district placed her on leave the day after the boy died.
A Mission resident, Treviño-Montelongo was named the campus teacher of the year at Paredes last semester.
In a video recognizing that achievement posted in April, Treviño-Montelongo said she was in her eighth year at the school.
About a week after the death, Justice of the Peace Juan “J.J.” Peña confirmed to The Monitor that an autopsy report indicated the boy died of heat asphyxiation after being left in a hot vehicle.
The National Weather Service recorded temperatures in the area at a high of 101 degrees the day police found the child’s body.
Speaking in generic terms, Hidalgo County Health Authority Ivan Melendez told The Monitor earlier this month that a child left in a hot car in the Rio Grande Valley would likely be unconscious within an hour and dead within two.
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Geo quick facts: Hidalgo County is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. The county seat is Edinburg and the largest city is McAllen. The county is named for Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, the priest who raised the call for Mexico’s independence from Spain – Wikipedia.