Probation for abuse of special ed students
Posted/updated on: March 3, 2026 at 3:28 pm
LONGVIEW – Two former Longview ISD administrators were sentenced to 10 years of probation on Friday in connection to the abuse of Longview ISD special education students in the 2021-2022 school year. Cassandra Renee James and Linda Kaye Brown Lister were both found guilty of injury to a child by a Gregg County jury on Friday. James and Lister were two of six women arrested in 2022 after video of special education students being mistreated at J.L. Everhart Elementary School was shown to Longview ISD officials.
According to our news partner KETK, their indictments show that James and Lister were charged for “swinging a paddle toward and near the head” of a child and not voluntarily delivering them to an emergency infant care provider.
Longview ISD said James and Lister both resigned from their roles instead of being terminated after the video came to the district’s attention.
James and Lister were sentenced to 10 years of probation on Friday by Judge J. Scott Novy. Their sentences both started on Friday.
Cynthia Denise Talley, Paula Dixon and Cecilia Gregg were all sentenced to prison in connection to this case. Talley was sentenced to five years in prison while Dixon and Gregg both got eight-year prison sentences. The sixth woman charged in this case, Priscilla Johnson, has as status hearing scheduled in Scott’s court on May 6, 2026.
