The state court lawsuit against a Bernalillo Public Schools teacher, previously reported by The Sandoval Signpost, settled earlier this month though officials remain mum on the details.
But a new federal lawsuit expands on the allegations in the state case and an investigation by the Signpost into the school district’s hiring and disciplinary practices reveal that the district’s own HR director worked for years to keep a teacher with a mounting abuse record in the classroom and blocked discipline attempts by her principal.
A federal lawsuit filed Jan. 27 in U.S. District Court — separate from the state court case the Signpost reported in February — adds new allegations against the teacher during her tenure as a 5th-grade instructor at Bernalillo Elementary School. Other news outlets have reported on the lawsuit but the Signpost is the first to confirm those details and add new context around her internal disciplinary history with personnel and PED investigation records.
BPS records show that as early as 2023, a teacher who inherited many of Martinez’s students from 2022 was among the first to report that students had witnessed troubling behavior in Martinez’s class. Handwritten notes from students documented that the teacher grabbed a student identified as Jane Doe by the neck and wrist, threw books at her, showed the class photos from the girl’s mother’s Instagram account to mock her, and, when the child wet herself after being denied a restroom break, told her she would have to clean it up with a straw because she would not allow a custodian to help. Four classmates provided handwritten statements corroborating the abuse. The state civil lawsuit against the Bernalillo Public Schools District was officially settled earlier this month with the judge acknowledging that the parties “have resolved all controversies and issues.” Details of the settlement were not immediately available.
A director who ran interference
Personnel files and court documents show Eric James, the current deputy superintendent of business services and former director of human resources for the Bernalillo Public Schools, was not a passive bystander to the teacher’s history — he was an active participant in keeping her employed. When the teacher submitted an “irrevocable resignation” following a 2020 insubordination charge, James personally submitted a new job application on her behalf two months later and secured her return for the following school year.
According to court records, when Principal Jayme Schutte attempted to issue a written disciplinary warning, James invalidated it because it was not on the “correct form” — then explicitly forbade Schutte from resubmitting it on the proper form. Court filings allege James told Schutte he feared the teacher’s union. By April 2022, James ordered Schutte to renew the teacher’s contract for the 2022-2023 school year, claiming there was no just cause to let her go — despite at least 10 documented violations on record.
Ten violations, zero consequences
Court filings catalog those violations in detail, spanning from 2020 through spring 2022:
- Abandoned her position and submitted an irrevocable resignation (2020)
- Refused to follow COVID mask mandates and yelled at the principal (2021)
- CYFD received a report she threatened to tie students up and hang them from a window (2021)
- Instructed students to keep secrets and lie to parents about classroom activities (2021)
- Repeatedly ridiculed students, prompting parents to beg for transfers (Aug. 2021)
- Terrorized students to the point of documented fear (Sept. 2021)
- Bullied a student in front of the class in a substantiated violation (Oct. 2021)
- Belittled a student’s family health decisions in front of peers (Feb. 2022)
- Wrote to district officials that she needed help with “communicating with students positively” — conduct Superintendent Matthew Montaño later called “asinine” in sworn testimony (March 2022)
- Aggressively intimidated a student over a laptop (April 2022)
The PED investigation — and what James did next
After the student reported the abuse in 2023, the New Mexico Public Education Department opened an investigation that extended into 2025 when BPS asked PED for an update only to learn that PED had extended Martinez’s license as the investigation stretched into a second year. Court filings reveal that James allegedly monitored those proceedings from the inside: text messages from April 2025 show James telling the teacher he was listening to NMPED interviews of other district teachers.
On June 16, 2025, the teacher entered a stipulated agreement with NMPED acknowledging the department held evidence of misconduct sufficient to justify disciplinary action. Her license was suspended for two months. With full knowledge of her license suspension, James re-hired her in August 2025.
The district also reassigned the student’s mother — a bilingual employee who worked at the school — to a more distant campus. The family and their attorneys allege that that amounts to retaliation.
In an interview with the Signpost, Montaño said he learned the full scope of the teacher’s history through the litigation process — she was hired before his tenure. He replaced James as HR director in June 2025 after determining the department needed new leadership. A board vote is upcoming on a formal review of hiring and investigation practices.
“Nothing’s 100% foolproof,” Montaño said, “but if there are concerns with investigations, we know what those concerns are, and then we can actually fix them.”
The district’s spokesperson has said Bernalillo Public Schools does not comment on pending litigation. James did not respond to an email seeking comment on the lawsuits.
Read our previous reporting:
- February: Lawsuit alleges Bernalillo teacher abused student, district ignored prior warnings
- March: New federal lawsuit alleges shocking abuse by Bernalillo Elementary teacher