EXCLUSIVE: Teacher in bizarre video speaks

By MICHAEL RODRIGUEZ
Managing Editor
editor@sbnewspaper.com

Imelda Paredes

Shown is a still image of a Veterans Memorial Academy teacher who recently announced to her class that she was going to marry Jesus Christ and have his child. (File photo)

In an exclusive interview with the San Benito News on Friday, the ninth grade teacher whose bizarre rant about Jesus Christ was captured on video and put on YouTube engaged in similar behavior while fielding questions about the incident.

During a telephone interview, 42-year-old Imelda Paredes, a Spanish teacher at San Benito Veterans Memorial Academy, confirmed that she was the educator in question.

The video, filmed by one of her students on Monday, shows Paredes begin a discussion about Jesus Christ and how he was in love with Mary Magdalene, a conspiracy theory popularized by Dan Brown’s fictional novel, The Da Vinci Code.

But the discussion soon turned bizarre when Paredes, who was speaking in Spanish during the majority of the 12-minute video, said that Mary Magdalene is not dead but instead reincarnated in different people.

“Soy yo (It is I),” Paredes said in Spanish, claiming she was the reincarnated Mary Magdalene and that Jesus Christ, who she claimed was in love with her, was planning on taking her to another planet where they would marry and conceive a child.

“I haven’t seen him (Jesus), but he talks to me every day,” Paredes said in the video. “He calls me, and he just recently promised me that he’s coming soon for me and for the good people to take us to the heavens, where I’ll have his baby. I have my husband here, but I don’t know what’s going to happen to him. My husband is Jesus Christ, and he is the one I want to marry.”

A student then asked his teacher, “How can you prove that you are who you say you are?” Paredes replied, “If you look at my eyes, one of my eyes is not mine.” She was referring to an earlier discussion in which she claimed Jesus Christ loved Mary Magdalene so much that he gave her one of the pupils from his eyes.

“Is there anybody that wants to see Jesus?” Paredes continued. “He’s watching you.”

Three students then approached Paredes and stared into her eyes, this before she took off her shoes and walked to her desk, where she played some music and stood motionless for a few minutes.

The scene was so disturbing to those present that two students sitting near Paredes ran out of the classroom. It was at this point that an unidentified administrator escorted the teacher outside.

Although the incident was initially attributed to a bad reaction to medication by a trusted source involved in the matter, Paredes displayed similar behavior when asked why she had made such comments. “Because it’s true,” she replied.

Once clear she was not fit to conduct an interview, the News asked her husband, Adrian Paredes, to speak on her behalf. He said, “I feel that my wife does care a lot about her students, and she loves working in San Benito. There’s really nothing else to say except to please respect my family’s privacy.”

Meanwhile, the video has made its way back onto YouTube after it was temporarily removed by the student who filmed it. One copy has since gone viral, garnering nearly 20,000 views.

Also, since the News broke the story Wednesday via sbnewspaper.com, a number of concerned parents – speaking on the condition of anonymity – criticized school district officials after learning that it wasn’t the first time Paredes suffered such an episode.

In December, Paredes reportedly spoke to her class about the end of the world, according to some of her students.

These concerns were taken to San Benito CISD Superintendent of Schools Antonio G. Limón, who said he considered the number of years she’s been employed with the district when allowing her back in the classroom after the December incident.

“Because it was nine years of never having a problem,” Limón responded when asked why Paredes was allowed to teach again. “I met with both her and her husband, and I had a release from her doctors. It was an isolated incident, and the board was aware of my decision.”

The superintendent confirmed that Paredes, who is still under contract with the district, will not report to work for the remainder of the year until officials can discuss her options.

Before she was named the 2007-2008 San Benito Veterans Memorial Academy Teacher of the Year, Paredes worked for two years with the Los Fresnos school district and nine in Brownsville.

The video can be seen below:

Permanent link to this article: https://www.sbnewspaper.com/2012/05/11/exclusive-teacher-in-bizarre-video-speaks/

8 comments

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    • Eugenia on September 21, 2013 at 12:34 am
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    The San Benito News should not have called her at home for an interview. It was obvious to all that the teacher was not capable of giving an interview. If she had been severely injured (physically) at school would a reporter have called her at home for an interview? I was disgusted by the newsman who made that call.

    The students that notified the professional staff should be thanked but it surprises me that it didn’t happen sooner. I was shocked that students were laughing and mocking her. Lastly I will never forget the one that filmed the incident, and the remarks he made, and ashamed by the behavior of the students who took such glee in another’s illness.

    • Rat on May 18, 2012 at 3:27 pm
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    If she’s let back in the classroom, check her for weapons every day. Next time she just might hear the Invisible Man in The Sky telling her to take all those poor children sitting in the classroom out of their “misery”.

    • Athyna on May 16, 2012 at 12:44 pm
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    This is what happen when funding is cut for mental health services.

    • Lisa on May 16, 2012 at 9:41 am
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    Paredes said in the video. “He calls me, and he just recently promised me that he’s coming soon for me and for the good people to take us to the heavens”. So, when they let her back next year as a teacher and she brings a gun to school and kills the kids and herself all in the name of God, whose fault will it be? Hers or the School’s District’s? If they are so worried about getting sued for cancelling her contract, can you imagine how many parents will sue when their children are harmed by her next year? She should never have been allowed back after the last incident, which, by the way, traumatized the students back then. I have a family member who was in her class that time and he was scared to death. Why would you continue to traumatize our children over and over. I can tell you I will be raising HOLY Hell if she is allowed back again.

    • M.G.L. on May 12, 2012 at 10:46 pm
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    People, get over it, it may have roots of religion but that’s not the reason, its about a mentally ill individual being delusional. She truly believes what she says because she is not mentally stable.

    As for Limon, he should already resign and make room for someone who knows federal and state laws as well as true educational leadership to take the school district and make it a top notch school, something Limon has failed to do. One incident is one too many when it comes to children/students. The school board should also become educated on federal and state laws so they can make right decisions and not base it on law illiterate superintendent and principals who set up the district for lawsuits.

    • Daniel on May 12, 2012 at 6:37 pm
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    Most people will laugh at this lady but she should not be allowed back into the classroom to teach anything to these impressionable minds; not because God or Jesus Christ is not real, but because here is a classic example of a lying, deceiving spirit. The students that ran out of the classroom did the wisest thing. Not knowing what to do, they got out of the presence of that lying spirit.

    Was this lady contracted to teach Spanish or theology? Who hired her to teach Spanish? She should not be allowed to teach it since anyone listening closely can tell she can’t even speak it correctly. @ 03:04 she uses the popular, but incorrect, word “muncho” (there is no such word in spanish)!

    • Luna Moon on May 12, 2012 at 9:54 am
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    Unfortunately, most devout religious persons become obsessed with it! In SB we also a bunch of self-promoters even to the point of plastering their faces on a billboard as if they were something other than mortal…but that is yet a whole other story.
    A couple of quotes to ponder…
    KJV Bible: Matthew 7:15- “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”

    Famous Person: “Men never commit evil so fully and joyfuly as when they do it for religious convictions” — Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)

    Luna Moon: “I don’t really care what you do…just don’t clutter my life with a bunch of nonsensical garbage! We have Freedom of Religion in this country, but we also have Freedom FROM IT!”

    • Lee Mahi on May 12, 2012 at 12:58 am
    • Reply

    I don’t believe in God, I believe in science.

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