ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Weeks after a video of a Rio Grande High School student getting maced circulated, Albuquerque Public Schools is coming up with ways to address the incident.

“I feel there needs to be training program implemented for school staff and APS police on how to deal with children with autism and social disabilities,” said Phillip Paulos, whose son Jackson Turnbull-Espinoza was maced on February 16, 2024.

Rio Grande High School leadership sent a letter to parents Monday outlining how they plan to move forward after the incident.

The district pointed to four solutions: school councilors on campus available to talk to students, a monthly ‘Pizza with the Principal’ event, a survey sent to students to receive any feedback on safety and coordinating with the Student Council on a conversation around safety.

“The letter from Principal Valenzuela is a weak outreach to smooth things over with the issue at hand. Pizza parties and counseling aren’t going to address the issues we are dealing with in our school system,” Paulos said.

He is pushing the district for more training.

“Lack of training and awareness for children with autism and social disabilities, we need a training program for our school district, APS police, and any school within our state on how to deal with children with autism and social disabilities,” he said.

We looked at what is offered to Student Resource Officers and found ‘Elevate the Spectrum.’ A nonprofit that provides sensory tools to de-escalate situations to SROs.

“We gave bags to APS Police in April of last year and we gave bags further back than that to BCSO SRO’s,” said Kristina Martinez, the board president for Elevate the Spectrum.

Martinez hopes APS reaches out to them or a similar organization for more training.

“It is very unfortunate I think it breaks our hearts, especially a lot of us on the board are parents and it is probably one of our greatest fears,” she said.

A spokesperson for the district said they were not available for an interview. KOB 4 did ask them about the sensory bags given to the district. We have not heard back.