An investigation is open into allegations of a teacher injuring a student by the Jacksonville Independent School District. “I would have never expected that to happen at school by a teacher,” said Ashelle Whitaker, mother. Concerned parent Ashelle Whitaker said her 7-year-old son was hurt by his second grade teacher. view article

Citing a need to prioritize student success, the La Joya ISD School Board unanimously approved a new policy that prevents district employees in “supervisory positions” from holding elected office. The policy was approved during a Thursday night school board meeting without any discussion. La Joya ISD School Board President Julian Alvarez III said the new policy “speaks of the district’s commitment to creating the conditions necessary for all La Joya ISD students to succeed.” view article

A Dallas ISD high school student has filed a federal Title VI civil rights complaint claiming the school district enables harassment and discrimination against Jewish students. The 17-page complaint was submitted to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) Tuesday by the student and StandWithUs, a nonprofit that supports Israel and works to combat antisemitism. The complaint details a log of antisemitic incidents dating back to 2021. view article

Multiple law enforcement agencies responded Friday morning to a shooting at Wilmer-Hutchins High School in southeast Dallas, according to Dallas Fire-Rescue officials. Police sources told WFAA that one student was injured and a 17-year-old suspect in the incident, also a student at the school, was taken into custody around 11 a.m. view article

A New Deal ISD teacher is being investigated after the school district was made aware of teacher misconduct, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety on Thursday. The Texas Rangers were notified by New Deal ISD of the incident. DPS said The Texas Rangers and the New Deal Police Department are investigating the matter. view article

An investigation is underway into allegations of misconduct against a teacher at New Deal ISD. Superintendent Matt Reed confirmed the teacher is on administrative leave, but would not comment further on the allegations. Reed said the Texas Rangers are handling the investigation. We contacted the Texas Department of Public Safety, which confirmed the New Deal ISD Police Department contacted the Texas Rangers, who are in the early stages of the investigation. view article

A teacher at Cy-Fair High School has been arrested and accused of having sex with a student on multiple occasions. The allegations were brought to light when Burbank’s girlfriend found text messages between him and the student on his phone. view article

A Cy-Fair ISD teacher resigned Tuesday after being accused of having an improper relationship with a student. The district identified the teacher as Kayden Burbank. He taught at Cy-Fair High School. Burbank was placed on administrative leave on April 2 after campus administration became aware of allegations that he was having an improper relationship with a student. Burbank then resigned on April 9. view article

Attorney General Ken Paxton announced that the state is suing Harris County over its “Uplift Harris” guaranteed basic income pilot program that the county launched at the start of the year. In a statement announcing the lawsuit, Paxton said: This scheme is plainly unconstitutional. Taxpayer money must be spent lawfully and used to advance the public interest, not merely redistributed with no accountability or reasonable expectation of a general benefit. I am suing to stop officials in Harris County from abusing public funds for political gain. In a response to the filing, Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee issued the following statement: view article

Lake Travis ISD is facing a federal civil lawsuit over how it handled a controversy surrounding a student's severe allergy attack last fall. In October, district leaders say high school football players put peanuts in the locker of a teammate who had a severe peanut allergy. view article

The family of a former Lake Travis High School football player is suing the Lake Travis Independent School District, including the superintendent and athletic director, after fellow football players put peanuts in their son’s locker. In the lawsuit, which was filed on April 6, the family alleges the teens knew their teammate was severely allergic, and the district failed to take any action to prevent bullying against their son. view article

Kedria Grigsby, 42, a cosmetology teacher at Klein Cain High School was arrested Monday, according to Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, via X (formerly known as Twitter), along with her son, Roger Magee, 21. The latter was arrested back in November 2022 for trafficking and prostitution. view article

Several Houston-area Democratic legislators are calling for a formal hearing to address “potential violations of state law” in Houston ISD in the aftermath of the Texas Education Agency stripping elected leaders from the school district. view article

PORT LAVACA — Sheryl Hall had her whole life ahead of her in 1991. She was engaged and soon to graduate Calhoun High School when she was killed in a stabbing while at school. Ever since, her mother, Olivia Johnson, 69, of Victoria, has visited her grave in Port Lavaca Cemetery every year around the anniversary of her death. On Saturday, she visited once again, while also asking for reform to tort laws that prevent school districts from being held liable in events like her daughter’s death. view article

Klein ISD confirms a cosmetology teacher at Klein Cain High School has been arrested and is facing felony charges of sex trafficking and compelling prostitution. In a letter sent out to families with students at Klein Cain, Principal Lauren Marti and Klein ISD Police Chief Marlon Runnels said cosmetology teacher Kedria Grigsby was taken into custody for the charges. view article

A Klein Cain High School cosmetology teacher was arrested Monday and charged with child trafficking and compelling prostitution. Kedria McMath Grigsby, 42, is in the Harris County Jail. The Harris County District Attorney's Office is requesting a $250,000 bond. view article

DENTON, Texas (CITC) — Two Texas school district employees were indicted Tuesday amid allegations they were involved in an "illegal electioneering" scheme, according to court records. In February, Denton Independent School District (Denton ISD) employees Jesús and Lindsay Luján were accused of using their district-issued email accounts to encourage co-workers to vote in the state's Republican primary elections. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against Denton ISD that month, claiming it is a criminal offense for a school district employee to spend or authorize the spending of public funds for political advertising. Lindsay Luján, the principal of Alexander Elementary School, promised 30-minute coverage for staff members who wanted to vote early in the primary elections, according to the lawsuit. She allegedly also provided employees with a list of candidates deemed "friendly" or "unfriendly" to public education, with Paxton labeled "unfriendly." view article

An employee with the Rio Grande City Grulla school district was arrested Wednesday and accused of faking an injury on school grounds to obtain workers' compensation, records show. An affidavit released to Channel 5 News shows Yadira Montalvo was charged with fraud to obtain workers' comp following an investigation from the district’s police department. view article

A federal lawsuit has been filed against Fort Bend Independent School District over shocking allegations involving an elementary student with autism. That little girl hasn't been at Oakland Elementary School in Richmond since October, according to her parents. But her mother told ABC13 that her daughter's mental scars remain. view article

Two Denton ISD elementary school principals were indicted on misdemeanor charges by a grand jury Tuesday for allegedly conducting an electioneering scheme through their school emails, according to court records. Alexander Elementary Principal Lindsay Lujan and Borman Elementary Principal Jesus Lujan, her husband, each was charged with unlawful use of internal mail system for political advertising. The indictments say the two used or authorized the use of an internal mail system to distribute political advertising. view article

A pair of Denton ISD elementary school principals were indicted on election-charges on Tuesday two months after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton accused Denton ISD of electioneering. The indictments state that the two principals, Borman Elementary Principal Jesus Lujan and Alexander Elementary Principal Lindsay Lujan, were each indicted on the charge of unlawful use of internal mail system for political advertising, a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail. The indictment details that the two, on Feb. 5, "did then and there knowingly use or authorize the use of an internal mail system to distribute political advertising." view article

A former Cy-Fair Independent School District teacher has pleaded guilty to injuring a kindergarten student with special needs after reportedly dragging him by his ankle down the school’s hallways in September of 2022, according to court documents. view article

Voters in Harris County are demanding that District Attorney Kim Ogg investigate allegations of illegal electioneering by Huffman Independent School District Superintendent Benny Soileau. More than a dozen voters filled out affidavits accusing Soileau of using taxpayer-funded school resources to promote political issues and candidates during a November 2023 bond election and the March 2024 primary. Texas election laws prohibit government officials and employees from using public funds or resources for political advertising. Violations are a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in jail and a $4,000 fine. The Liberty Justice Center submitted the affidavits to Ogg on Thursday, along with a letter demanding an investigation of Soileau’s election interference. “The Affidavits allege criminal conduct under the Texas Election Code. Accordingly, your office is now required to investigate this matter,” wrote Dean McGee, LJC’s educational freedom attorney. view article

As gender ideology continues to spread through Texas’ government schools, a Houston high school has come under fire for a psychology assignment dedicated to promoting transgender ideology. Students at Santa Fe High School enrolled in a dual-credit college-level psychology course were given an assignment using an online tool called the “Genderbread Person” in which students were asked to analyze aspects of gender. The diagram describes differences between gender identity, gender expression, biological sex, and sexual orientation. It explains that gender identity is “how you, in your head, think about yourself. It’s the chemistry that composes you,” whereas biological sex “refers to the objectively measurable organs, hormones, and chromosomes.” The diagram also touches on gender expression, which it states is “how you demonstrate your gender through the ways you act, dress, behave, and interact.” Shay Cundiff, a 17-year-old attending Santa Fe High School, said the assignment made her “feel uncomfortable and distasteful.” view article

Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed civil suits against nearly a dozen school districts for their illegal electioneering during the 2024 primary season because the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals blocked his office’s ability to prosecute such cases. Since then, voters have begun filing criminal complaints with their local district attorneys. Yesterday, we asked readers what they thought should happen to school districts found to have illegally engaged in electioneering. view article

The Starr County district attorney dropped the improper charges, but the fallout “forever changed the Plaintiff’s life,” a new federal lawsuit says. When a Texas woman was arrested and jailed for self-inducing an abortion in 2022, her name and mugshot were quickly broadcast around the world. Three days later, the Starr County prosecutor dropped the charges and was later disciplined for bringing them at all. But for Lizelle Herrera, now Lizelle Gonzalez, the damage had been done. The “humiliation of a highly publicized indictment and arrest” has “permanently affected her standing in the community,” according to a new federal lawsuit filed Thursday. view article

On Sept. 6, 2022, a 5-year-old boy, enrolled in an Early Childhood Special Education class, was in the school gymnasium when he became upset and left the gym after he opted not to participate in a game other students were playing, charging documents read. Hall reportedly followed the boy and found him lying on the floor, kicking, screaming and cursing. She grabbed him by the ankles and pulled him on his back down the hallways, documents read. view article

The driver of a concrete truck that drifted into oncoming traffic and collided with a Hays ISD school bus last Friday has been charged with criminally negligent homicide, according to Bastrop County criminal records. The charge is a state jail felony, the least severe of all felonies, punishable by up to two years in jail and a fine of up to $10,000. view article

A former Cy-Fair ISD staff member will spend nine years in prison for inappropriately touching an 18-year-old Life Skills student, according to court documents. Ennis Hernandez pleaded guilty to inducing a child into sexual performance and having an improper relationship with a student. In each case, he was sentenced to nine years, but both sentences must be served concurrently. view article

A Caddo Mills ISD employee has been arrested and charged with possession of child pornography, according to the district. The employee, Sean Day, worked in the district warehouse overseeing custodians and did not supervise any students. view article

Ennis Hernandez, the former Cy-Fair ISD paraprofessional who was found to be inappropriately touching a student at the school he worked at, has been sentenced. Hernandez was sentenced to nine years in Harris County Jail after being charged with having an improper relationship with a student and the sexual performance of a child. view article

Texas law requires district attorneys to investigate criminal election complaints if two or more voters submit affidavits.  Four weeks ago, Denton County voters submitted criminal complaints alleging local school district officials illegally electioneered during the March primaries, using taxpayer-funded resources to promote political candidates.  Denton County District Attorney Paul Johnson has failed to respond to repeated inquiries about whether his office has opened a criminal investigation as state law requires.  Local voters submitted affidavits to Johnson on February 27 that alleged criminal election interference by Denton Independent School District administrators.  Using Denton ISD’s email system, district administrators incentivized employees to vote in the Republican primary against candidates identified as supporting school choice. view article

Agencies like the Texas Department of Transportation are using the technology to react to crashes and prepare invoices. More uses and regulations are coming. view article

LITTLE ROCK -- A high school teacher and two students sued Arkansas on Monday over the state's ban on critical race theory and "indoctrination" in public schools, asking a federal judge to strike down the restrictions as unconstitutional. The lawsuit by the teacher and students from Little Rock Central High School, site of the historic 1957 racial desegregation crisis, stems from the state's decision last year that an Advanced Placement course on African American Studies would not count toward state credit. The lawsuit argues the restrictions, which were among a number of education changes that Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed into law last year, violate free speech protections under the First Amendment and the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. view article

With embattled Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and state prosecutors cutting a deal Tuesday to end the state's nearly nine-year criminal securities fraud case against Paxton, the public might never know the details of how the three-term Republican officially responded to the charges because the agreement legally can be kept secret. The Texas Public Information Act allows that information to be kept from public disclosure as such agreements do not equate to a criminal conviction. Brian Wice, the special prosecutor on the case, said Paxton's pretrial intervention agreement is not a public record. "It is not filed with the papers of the court," he told reporters Tuesday after announcing the deal in a Harris County state District Court. view article