Posted 1:52 am Thursday, February 05, 2009
Two Troup ISD Educators, Teacher’s Aide Tender Resignations
By KENNETH DEAN
Staff Writer
TROUP -- One Troup educator was asked to resign after a series of text messages to a student and another was required to resign after she hid a fugitive from police in her classroom, according to school officials.
Staff Writer
TROUP -- One Troup educator was asked to resign after a series of text messages to a student and another was required to resign after she hid a fugitive from police in her classroom, according to school officials.
Troup Independent School District Superintendent Marvin Beatty said he will not tolerate such unprofessional behavior from his employees.
Beatty said there were no inappropriate messages sent to the high school student from the assistant baseball/football coach, but that he could not think of a good reason any educator would have to text personal messages to a member of the student body.
"We have no information there were any type of physical relationships, but we felt it violated the professional relationships we require of our employees," he said.
Beatty said he asked for the resignation of the school coach after a Troup Police Department investigation in December proved no criminal wrong doing and then forwarded information to Child Protective Services and the Texas Board of Education for them to investigate.
Beatty explained that although there was no indication of criminal wrongdoing on the part of the former coach, he did not want to pass on a potential problem but wanted the agencies governing educators to be aware.
"The old saying of 'pass the trash' is not going to happen here. We will not pass the trash. I told him of my intentions and I have made everyone aware of this situation," Beatty said.
"If there is a cockroach in the woodpile, we are going to find it and identify it. I am not just a superintendent, I am also a daddy."
Beatty said the coach's wife, who was a teacher's aide on the elementary campus, also resigned, but Beatty said he would not give the reason for her leaving the school district.
About the same time, the former high school principal also resigned, but Beatty said that educator left due to medical reasons.
Beatty also said the district has been in a rough spot punctuated by the arrest last week of a middle school teacher after she hid her sister from police in her classroom.
Troup Police Chief Pat Hendrix said his officers went to the school looking for the sister on a traffic warrant, and the teacher said she had not seen her.
"We explained to her if she was lying that she was harboring a fugitive and would be arrested. She continued saying she didn't know where her sister was. When we entered the classroom, we found the sister and arrested both women," he said.
The teacher was charged with a Class A misdemeanor for harboring a fugitive and the sister was arrested on the traffic warrant out of Whitehouse.
Beatty said the teacher hiding her sister was just a silly thing.
"There comes a time when you have to say it is time to put on your big britches and act like an adult. If you can't tell the truth to a police officer then I cannot have that," he said.
Beatty said the teacher tendered her resignation on Friday after he told her she was not going back into a classroom because she violated the trust of setting a good example.
"I hope it gives people comfort that we didn't turn a blind eye to any of these situations, but we did the right thing even if it wasn't popular. Our goal is to always do what is right, because we are educators of children and we must set good examples," he said.
