A married English teacher in Georgia is just the latest to be arrested for having inappropriate sexual relations with a minor student.
New data shows these incidents have become rampant across the U.S., with some even calling them an epidemic. But what about here in Houston?
“Texas does it’s best to try to prevent all these relationships from happening” said Andrew Stewart, executive director of communications for the Conroe ISD.
And it is something that state of Texas takes very seriously.
“Every employee of Conroe ISD and school districts around the state, they go through finger printing, background checks, that’s before they’re even hired we go through a process” Stewart told KTRH, “And then once they are hired, we try to make it clear that all of that is not tolerated.”
He also notes that before a prospective educator is even hired, there is now much more screening and vetting that takes place.
“Once they’re hired, we try to make sure that our leadership teams are making it clear that all inappropriate relationships will not be tolerated” noted Stewart, “We have policies, we have handbooks that they sign.”
Also noteworthy, schools can longer just try to keep incidents ‘in-house’, they have to be reported to the state, or else they face discipline.