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WEST JORDAN — A teacher who allegedly took an autistic student for an unauthorized walk outside the school has been charged with child kidnapping.
Amy Louise Martz, 49, of West Jordan, was charged Monday with the first-degree felony in 3rd District Court.
On Sept. 4, a woman reported that her 5-year-old girl, who is “autistic and mostly non-verbal” did not come home from school, according to charging documents. A short time later, Martz, a teacher at the school, reported that she was with the child.
Martz told school administrators that she “was in a bit of a pickle” and had taken the girl to find her mother, charging documents state. She walked into a nearby neighborhood and took the child more than a half-mile away from the school, the charges state.
Another teacher spotted them and brought them back to the school. Martz claimed she tried to give the girl a “piggyback ride,” but was gone with her for approximately 40 minutes, the charges state.
“School surveillance footage shows Martz walking hand-in-hand with (the girl) then pass the teacher on bus duty. Martz takes (the girl) and walks past the teacher and walks north, on school property,” according to the charges.
A $25,000 warrant was issued for Martz’s arrest Monday. Prosecutors have also requested that she wear a GPS ankle monitor if she is able to post bail.
Martz is an attorney specializing in education law, having been admitted to the Utah State Bar in 2017. In 2018 she ran to represent the 42nd District in the Utah House of Representatives as a candidate for the United Utah Party.
On her LinkedIn profile, Martz indicates she was a teacher in the Granite School District from 1994 to 2001, and was then a principal in the district from 2001 to 2015 when she began her law studies. She lists her current job as a teacher in the Jordan School District at Fox Hollow Elementary, where she says she has been employed for three years.
The Fox Hollow Elementary School website lists a woman named Amy Martz as a sixth grade teacher there.
When contacted Monday by KSL, a spokesman for the Jordan School District said he was not aware of the allegations and could not immediately comment.
A call to a number listed on the Martz Law website was not immediately returned.
Contributing: Gretel Kauffman
