A Texas teacher working as a substitute in the Midlothian Independent School District is facing four felony charges of sex crimes against children.
Madison Paige Jones, 30, was arrested and charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child and possession of more than 500 images of child sexual abuse material. Both are first-degree felonies punishable by up to life in prison.
Jones was also charged with two counts of indecency with a child by sexual contact, a second-degree felony punishable by 2 to 20 years in prison.
On Christmas Eve, the Midlothian Police Department released a statement announcing Jones’ arrest, which followed an investigation of a December 17 report of a possible child sexual assault.
Midlothian ISD notified families with students at Baxter Elementary and Heritage High School that a substitute teacher, who was not named, had been charged with the sex crimes and was no longer employed by the district.
The district stated that there was “no indication that the charges are related to the individual’s role as a substitute teacher or that anything occurred at an MISD campus or activity.”
According to the notices, Jones worked on Midlothian ISD campuses four times this year: at Baxter on October 28 and 29 and November 3, and at Heritage on November 19.
“We are sharing this information out of an abundance of caution because of the seriousness of the charges,” the district wrote. “Our District process for monitoring employee criminal history functioned as intended, and we were notified quickly” by the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Jones was booked into the Wayne McCollum Detention Center in Ellis County on December 19. Total bond was set at $90,000.
A second suspect, 37-year-old Zackery Dondlinger, was arrested on December 23 in Loving County and charged with sexual performance by a child. He is currently being held at the Winkler County Detention Center.
People reported that Dondlinger is Jones’ boyfriend and that Jones admitted she recorded herself performing sex acts with a 5-year-old child and sent the videos to Dondlinger via Snapchat.
Police said the investigation remains ongoing and encouraged anyone with information related to the case to contact Detective Dawson Frazer at 469-672-0056.
Two Texas educator certificates are issued to a Madison Paige Jones—one as a classroom teacher issued on December 12, just days before Jones’ arrest, and one as an educational aide issued in August of 2024.
In just the past few years, hundreds of Texas teachers have been accused of sex crimes involving students and other children. Thousands have been reported to the Texas Education Agency for sexual misconduct.
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