Former El Paso Middle School Principal Arrested In Fort Worth On Child Abandonment Charges

A Fort Worth middle school principal was behind bars Sunday on a charge that she abandoned her children at a hotel to go to a nightclub in downtown Dallas, authorities told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Sunday.

Carla Westbrook-Spaniel, 44, was in the Dallas County Jail on Sunday in lieu of $30,000 bail. She is married to an Army Reserve captain who is in Iraq.

Westbrook-Spaniel is currently the principal at J.P. Elder Middle School in Fort Worth. According to her bio on the Fort Worth ISD Website, Westbrook-Spaniel was principal at Nolan Richardson Middle School in El Paso from 1997-’99. She also has been a principal in Dallas and Tulsa.

Westbrook-Spaniel was arrested about 1:30 a.m. Saturday in Dallas after she scuffled with a bouncer and Dallas police near a nightclub in the 1500 block of Main Street, according to a report by The Dallas Morning News.

Dallas police arrested her on suspicion of public intoxication after smelling alcohol on her breath, the report states.

During her arrest, police learned that Westbrook-Spaniel’s children, ages 3 and 4, were alone in a room at the Adolphus hotel downtown, the paper reported.

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