School District Must Report Teacher Incidents to TEA
By
KGNS News
Story Created:
Jan 21, 2013 at 11:10 PM CDT
Story Updated:
Jan 22, 2013
We are receiving a mix of phone calls from concerned parents regarding a story we reported on last week.
We've found out more information about the past of an Alexander schoolteacher and former coach.
But how has Javier Reyes been able to bounce around from south Texas school districts with allegations of sexual misconduct following him?
Our Valerie Bragg attempts to answer that question in our top story.
A look at a teaching certificate is just one step in the hiring process at all independent school districts.
I sat down with a director at the Texas Education Agency to find out exactly how they keep track of a teachers past history.
"Every professional educator has a certification that is assigned to them. So on their certification we would note that there is a review currently taking place if we open an investigation on a specific person."
Texas Education Agency requires independent school districts to report an arrest, resignation or termination.
But after numerous instances, KGNS has been contacted by a few parents asking why he has not lost his teaching certificate.
"In cases where someone is sentenced to prison then that leads to an automatic revocation of that certificate. Anything new then there are various sanctions that we can impose."
As I looked through Reyes file at UISD, one document said that the agency had revoked his teaching certificate after sexual harassment allegations in Roma.
More documents from Roma show Reyes pled to keep teaching job because it is his livelihood.
He went on to say his three kids go to school in Roma and love it there.
Roma ISD decided to end his contract.
Other documents found by the agency shows that after he was terminated, he appealed his case to the commissioner of education.
There, the commissioners ruled that is was a fundamental error for Roma to conduct an evidentiary hearing concerning the possible termination of Reyes contract and further ruled the decision to terminate his contract was void.
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