For a second time this school year, police have charged a teacher in the Grand Prairie Independent School District with sexual misconduct involving a student.
Grand Prairie ISD officials reportedly notified parents on March 9 that Cody Bush, an Ag teacher and FFA advisor at South Grand Prairie High School, had been arrested for an alleged relationship with a student.
Bush was charged with improper relationship between educator and student, a second-degree felony punishable by two to 20 years in prison.
Texas Penal Code defines an “improper relationship” as a primary or secondary school employee engaging in either sexual contact with a student of any age or sexually explicit communication with anyone younger than 17 years of age.
Bush was booked into Tarrant County Jail on March 10 and released on $25,000 bond.
Grand Prairie ISD Superintendent Linda Ellis said she has “no tolerance for any type of inappropriate communication or contact between a teacher and a student,” and that the district “will continue to partner with the Grand Prairie Police Department to ensure our students’ safety.”
The district said Bush had resigned and administrators reported his misconduct to the State Board for Educator Certification. As of March 14, Bush’s SBEC certificate is shown as “valid” with no notation yet that he is under investigation by the Texas Education Agency.
Bush is among the steady stream of teachers in Texas and across the country who continue to make headlines for sex-related crimes against students and other minors—and the second in this North Texas district charged in the current school year.
In December, Grand Prairie ISD teacher and football coach Kenrick Burns was arrested on charges of having an “intimate relationship” with a student.