Days before the start of a new school year Monday, Rockwall Independent School District was thrown into chaos when two parents revealed details of an investigation into their son’s pre-K teacher for alleged sexual assault.
A Rockwall grand jury did not return an indictment against the Springer Elementary School teacher in March after hearing the evidence. The child’s parents, Corey and Tim Booth, said the investigations by the sheriff’s office and district attorney’s office were flawed.
The teacher was scheduled to teach pre-K at Springer Elementary starting this week. Administrators announced Wednesday she had been placed on administrative leave for her own safety and was not at the school.
The teacher did not respond to phone calls and email requests for comment this week. The Dallas Morning News is not naming the teacher because she has not been disciplined by the district or charged with a crime.
In a letter to parents Sunday, the school said there had been “a significant amount of threatening statements directed at our campus staff and administration via social media and email.” As a result, the school said they would increase law enforcement presence ahead of the first day of class.
The teacher spent five months on administrative leave during the investigation into the allegations, but returned to Springer Elementary in April after the grand jury declined to indict.
“Four agencies reviewed this case, and the Grand Jury, which is comprised of independent Rockwall County residents, ‘No Billed’ the case and determined that there was insufficient evidence to support probable cause to move forward with prosecution,” Rockwall District Attorney Kenda Culpepper said in a statement.
Rockwall ISD said the matter was investigated by the county sheriff’s department, children’s advocacy center, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, the district attorney’s office and the grand jury.
“The case was thoroughly investigated with the assistance of the Child Advocacy Center,” the Rockwall sheriff’s office said in a statement.
The Booths believe the teacher abused their son. On Aug. 8, the parents posted their concerns in a graphic account on Facebook that described their son’s allegations. The post has received thousands of reactions and comments and was shared nearly 9,000 times.
The parents also distributed their statement in a letter to Springer Elementary parents and employees, leaving the letters on cars at a school event last week.
“While the district attorney’s office did issue a ‘no bill,’ that doesn’t mean there wasn’t evidence,” the Booths wrote in another Facebook post Aug. 9. “In fact, rather than dismissing the case, it has been left with the option to retry her when and if more evidence comes to light.”
Community concern
In the wake of the parents’ online comments, some families have reconsidered enrolling their children in the district, according to comments made at a special session with the district’s board of trustees Wednesday night.
At the meeting, more then 100 parents, community members and survivors of sexual abuse packed into a board room to share their experiences and express frustration with administrators and county officials.
The speakers demanded investigations into county leaders, changes in how parents are notified of accusations against teachers, more transparency about investigations of sexual assault, increased security camera surveillance in schools and the replacement of some administrators.
Some in attendance spoke in defense of the teacher, calling for more trust in officials and the investigations.
Through tears, raised voices and furious testimonies, community members expressed distrust in the district and asked for more transparency.
“This district has, through its policies and actions or inactions, allowed the public to have distrust of the process,” Jennifer Martin, a mother in the district, said at the meeting.
Kendrick Lawrence, a pastor who attended the district’s schools growing up, said Wednesday his child was scheduled to be in the classroom of the accused teacher. He learned from protesting parents about the accusations and said he was not given a sufficient alternative teacher for his pre-K student.
“They told us nothing about anything that went on,” Lawrence said at the meeting. “I’m just asking for a choice. I’m not willing to take that risk. … I don’t know about guilty or innocent but you can’t push the decision on me and tell me that’s all that I can do. … Rockwall can definitely do better.”
Parents speak out online
Corey and Tim Booth wrote in their Facebook post that in October, their son told them a teacher had exposed herself to him at Springer Elementary School.
The Booths said in their post that their son later told them he had been sexually assaulted by the teacher while held back from recess. On Nov. 1, the parents reported the alleged assault to police and an investigation began. Rockwall County has said the district attorney’s office is reviewing requests from The News for records related to the case.
The parents were told by a sheriff’s office investigator that a school officer was reviewing video footage that seemed to show two boys held back from recess, according to their statement.
The Booths said the teacher was put on paid administrative leave Nov. 1. On March 27, they said a Rockwall grand jury heard the case and declined to charge the teacher. The parents said the school’s video footage was not presented to the grand jury.
Corey Booth told The News on Aug. 13 that investigators told her they received security footage during the investigation and later told her it was deleted.
At the school board meeting Wednesday, Michael Hillman, the district’s director of safety and security, said Rockwall ISD stores footage until the cameras’ storage reaches capacity, usually 30-40 days. When the storage is full, the system automatically overwrites the oldest video footage, Hillman said.
“Any allegation that anyone associated with Rockwall ISD deleted any video and intentionally withheld or destroyed evidence requested by a subpoena would not be true,” Hillman said at the board meeting Wednesday.
The parents have other concerns with the investigation. They said teachers were not interviewed properly, police did not search the accused teacher’s phone for evidence and their son was not examined by a nurse in a timely manner following the alleged sexual assault.
Corey Booth said she requested her son receive an exam from a nurse on Nov. 2 after the alleged sexual assault. She said Child Protective Services first told her they wouldn’t perform a sexual assault exam for boys.
Corey Booth said after persistent requests to investigators, her son received an exam around three weeks after the investigation began. She said no physical evidence of sexual assault was found, but believes the exam was performed too late to be accurate. A medical forensic exam should take place within five days of a sexual assault if reported to law enforcement, according to Texas Health Resources.
Culpepper, the Rockwall district attorney, said she is not permitted to respond to questions about the concerns due to the nature of the case.
“The law does not allow us to publicly release confidential information about a child sexual abuse investigation,” Culpepper wrote in a statement to The News.
The Booths said the school’s principal assured them they’d be notified if the teacher was reinstated, but they were surprised in April when their son’s sibling told them she had returned. They had not been notified, the parents said, and withdrew their children from school the day they found out about her return.
“We wish we would have spoken up immediately because now this teacher is getting ready to start a new school year with new unsuspecting students and families,” the Booth family’s statement reads.
Parents demand action
Last Saturday, dozens of people protested at the Rockwall courthouse, some with signs and some with their children. Others protested at the school Monday morning or spoke out at Wednesday’s board meeting.
Jennifer Martin and other parents cited past allegations against teachers at the board meeting and said there are systemic problems with how the district handles accusations of sexual assault.
“I think this district has to do better in informing parents about what is going on with their kids. You can say it’s an allegation, but the parents ought to know,” Martin said.
Joey Byrum, the chief human resources officer for the district, told parents and the School Board Wednesday that the teacher did not return to the classroom until April 2, after “independent, thorough investigations” found the allegations were not supported by evidence.
“Due to employee privacy rights, the district could not notify the parents that the teacher had returned from administrative leave,” Byrum said.
The school district maintains it complied fully with the investigations, including with laws regarding subpoenas and court orders.
“At the time the employee was placed on administrative leave, the district had immediately referred the matter to the appropriate authorities,” the district said in a news release. “Because four independent investigations determined the allegations were not supported by the evidence … it was reasonable to conclude the alleged abuse or neglect did not occur.”
Breaking news reporter Aria Jones contributed to this report.
