A Rockwall high school football coach whose “boot camp” training sent several student athletes to the hospital received no disciplinary action from the state agency that oversees Texas educators’ professional certification.
Rejecting a judge’s recommendation to revoke coach John Harrell’s teaching certificate, the State Board for Educator Certification instead decided that Harrell didn’t “knowingly or recklessly” harm students when assigning hundreds of “punishment pushups” to the boys as part of an intense off-season workout.
As a result of Harrell’s training program, at least 26 Rockwall Independent School District students were diagnosed with a serious medical condition known as rhabdomyolysis or reported symptoms.
“It just seems like a really unfortunate situation that happened to these kids,” said SBEC Vice Chair Julia Dvorak, who led Friday’s meeting in the absence of Board Chair Courtney MacDonald.
A third-party investigation commissioned by the district concluded Harrell’s workouts were recklessly implemented and endangered the health of his students.
An administrative law judge reached the same conclusion after a hearing last year, finding a “preponderance of evidence” showed Harrell recklessly caused students harm.
Yet during a quarterly SBEC meeting on April 24, board members unanimously voted to apply “no sanction” to Harrell’s certification, which became inactive in February.
The board’s own rules require permanent revocation of a certificate when a hearing determines an educator intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly causes bodily injury to a student.
But SBEC members voted to “modify” the judge’s findings in order to protect Harrell from any professional sanction.
Dvorak, an education policy consultant and communications director for State Sen. Angela Paxton (R–McKinney), noted that her husband is a boys’ basketball coach.
“I live in this coach’s world a lot,” said Dvorak, arguing that she disagreed with the judge’s conclusion that Harrell’s actions warranted permanent revocation, as “the intention behind what occurred wasn’t to harm students” and Harrell later visited his injured athletes in the hospital.
The decision by the board members, who are appointed by the governor, defied the recommendations of the judge who heard the evidence and the Texas Education Agency.
Background
Harrell was a teacher and head football coach at Rockwall-Heath High School in Rockwall ISD.
In January 2023, he held an off-season “boot camp” and required student athletes to perform strenuous activities for both conditioning and disciplinary purposes—including more than 300 pushups over the course of an hour.
Students interviewed by investigators said they never asked to get water during workouts because it would make them look weak.
Some students and parents said they were afraid to come forward after the boot camp injuries because of a “whisper campaign” within the school community and online bullying of injured players.
Other parents and students supported Harrell, attending a school board meeting wearing “Keep Harrell” shirts.
Harrell was placed on administrative leave in February 2023 and resigned soon after.
The Texas Education Agency then sought to revoke Harrell’s teaching certificate, alleging, among other offenses, that the coach “intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly” treated students in a manner that adversely affected or endangered their physical health—a violation of the Texas Educators’ Code of Ethics.
Harrell contested the revocation, and the case was heard in September 2025 by an administrative law judge (ALJ) with the State Office for Administrative Hearings.
The coach testified he did not know what rhabdomyolysis was and had never heard of it through his education or professional training, and therefore he should not be penalized for endangering his students with workouts that caused the condition.
Harrell was represented by attorney Tiger Hanner, who in 2023 told a roomful of education attorneys, “We can’t let crazy parents mandate what we do. We have to do what’s best for the system.”
In January 2026, the ALJ issued a ruling called a Proposal for Decision.
The judge found the state proved allegations of recklessness that require mandatory revocation of an educator’s certification and thus recommended that Harrell’s certificate be revoked.
“The picture that emerges from the preponderant evidence is that of an educator who was so consumed in his quest for greatness and unity forged in fire that he failed to adequately consider the risks posed to his students by unfettered exercise,” wrote ALJ Shelly Doggett.
“The ALJ finds the permanent revocation rule applies to these circumstances, where Respondent’s reckless decision to call for hundreds of pushups from his students, and failure to consider the potential harm that could result from the students’ overexertion, resulted in students experiencing bodily injury,” added Doggett.
SBEC Hearing
TEA attorney Trevin Ware, who had presented the case against Harrell to the ALJ, reviewed the evidence with SBEC members. Ware said the ALJ found the evidence to be credible and determined that Harrell “was aware of, but consciously disregarded, a substantial and unjustifiable risk that doing too many pushups or overexertion could result in physical injury.”
Harrell also appeared before SBEC. The coach again cited his lack of knowledge as evidence he wasn’t reckless in ordering his students to perform exercises that unquestionably resulted in physical harm to the boys.
“I’m not a doctor, I’m a football coach. And by the way, I’m not educated on rhabdomyolysis,” Harrell told board members. “Nobody on my staff or myself knew what rhabdomyolysis was. We didn’t know that pushups could cause it.”
“I’m here now to protect educators and coaches,” added Harrell. “Start protecting coaches and put some rules into place and educate people. Make sure that I’m the only one that has to be the face and go through this.”
After hearing from Ware and Harrell, Dvorak called the students’ injuries “extremely unfortunate” but said the judge’s findings of facts and conclusions of law “aren’t lining up for me, because it wasn’t intentional.”
“Our rules state intentional, knowingly, or reckless treatment of a student that caused bodily injury harm,” she said. “The way that our rules are written is what triggered this permanent revocation status from the ALJ because it was found to have been reckless behavior.”
“I also sympathize,” said SBEC member Tara Turk-Zaafran. “I mean, he wasn’t intentionally doing any harm to these students. It’s extremely unfortunate.”
Veronica Galvan also called it “a very unfortunate situation,” adding that it merited consideration that Child Protective Services determined Harrell did not commit abuse or neglect.
Following a closed session to consult with Assistant Attorney General Martin Cohick, Associate Education Commissioner Jessica McLoughlin, and TEA Director of Policy and Planning Kameryn McCain, Dvorak emerged with a proposal to modify the ALJ’s findings of fact and conclusions of law.
Dvorak said that the modification was “permissible” under Texas Government Code and was “necessary because the administrative law judge did not properly apply board rules or policies.”
SBEC rules allow the board to adopt an order modifying findings of fact or conclusions of law in a proposal for decision if the board determines that the ALJ “did not properly apply or interpret applicable law, agency rules, [or] written policies.”
“It was proven in this case that it wasn’t intentional or knowingly, and therefore it wasn’t reckless,” concluded Dvorak.
By changing the judge’s facts and conclusions so that the coach was not deemed reckless and therefore subject to mandatory permanent revocation of his certificate, Harrell received no sanction at all on his certification record.
Lawsuits
Harrell was also sued by multiple families of students injured by his workouts.
Two suits were settled for an undisclosed amount.
A third lawsuit was dismissed by an appellate court just a week before Harrell’s SBEC hearing. The Fifth Court of Appeals ruled that the law requires the family to sue Rockwall ISD, not the coach.
Harrell’s attorney in the suit, Meredith Walker with Walsh Gallegos, said Harrell was protected by the Texas Education Code, which provides school employees immunity from liability for actions they perform as part of their duties.
Another Rockwall ISD coach, Rockwall High School wrestling coach Josh Brining, was placed on leave in 2024 and later replaced over complaints he contributed to a student athlete’s serious injury.
About SBEC
The State Board for Educator Certification was created by the Texas Legislature in 1995 to grant public school educators authority to govern the standards of conduct within their profession.
SBEC consists of 15 members, including 11 voting members appointed by the governor. Julia Dvorak was first appointed to the board by Gov. Greg Abbott in 2020 and reappointed in 2025.
Board members are required to meet quarterly to conduct business, including deciding disciplinary action on complaints filed with the TEA against certified educators.
During their April 24 meeting, SBEC members also approved changes to the Educators’ Code of Ethics and rules for Disciplinary Proceedings, Sanctions, and Contested Cases that implement legislation enacted in 2025, and delegated authority for informally disposing of contested educator discipline cases to the Office of the Inspector General for Educator Misconduct, as allowed for under current state law.
The next SBEC meeting is scheduled for July 23-24.
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