Additional charges in Longview ISD abuse case

LONGVIEW – Additional charges have been filed against two women, formerly employed by Longview ISD, in connection to alleged abuse at an elementary school. According to our news partner KETK, Cassandra James, 49, and Linda Lister, 62, were both originally indicted for endangering a child in June 2022. The women are two of six total facing charges in connection to abuse allegations stemming from a Longview ISD elementary school. The four other former district employees indicted for charges related to the mistreatment of students are: Paula Hawkins Dixon, Priscilla Johnson, Cecilia Gregg and Cynthia Talley. The latest indictments, filed at the end of 2023, charge the women on one count of endangering a child and 16 counts of injury to a child for dates that occurred in September and October 2021.
According to her 2023 indictment, James is accused of “swinging a paddle at or in the direction of “a child and “did not voluntarily deliver the child to a designated emergency infant care provider.” James is also accused, according to the indictment, of striking children with her hands, hitting a child with a ruler, sitting on a child, striking a child with a backpack and “encouraging or directing” one child to hit another. In Lister’s indictment, she is accused of many of the same actions including striking children with a stick, her fists or hands and a shoe. Both James and Lister have status hearings for the new charges set for April.