A mother is suing the Austin Independent School District for failing to prevent a high school band teacher’s sexual grooming and abuse of her 16-year-old son.
Rodney Tyrone Childers, 43, was a band teacher at Austin ISD’s LBJ Early College High School when he was arrested in 2024 for multiple felony sex crimes against the student.
Childers reportedly admitted sending the student nude photos and videos, some taken in his school office, and to sexually abusing the boy both on and off school property. Investigators found he was also sexually grooming another student.
He was eventually charged with improper relationship between educator and student, indecency with a child by exposure, child grooming, online solicitation of a minor, and possession of child pornography.
The federal lawsuit, filed on June 26 against Austin ISD and Childers, alleges the band teacher “cultivated a predatory relationship” with the student from the fall of 2023 through July 2024.
The suit accuses Austin ISD of “deliberate indifference” that “enabled and prolonged” Childers’ sexual abuse of the student, who was age 16 to 17 at the time.
According to the complaint, Childers positioned himself as a “father figure” to the vulnerable boy, who “lacked a consistent male role model in his life.”
Childers exploited this vulnerability through classic grooming techniques: building trust, providing gifts and money (approximately $1,500 through Cash App), offering rides and haircuts, exchanging increasingly sexual text messages, soliciting and receiving nude photographs, and ultimately sexually assaulting J.E. on multiple occasions both on and off school property.
The complaint describes how Childers’ grooming followed “patterns well-documented in cases of educator sexual abuse.”
It also describes how Childers used his position of authority as a “trusted adult” to manipulate the student into compliance and then silence.
In addition, the complaint documents multiple sexual assaults of the student by Childers, both off campus and at school.
Several assaults allegedly occurred in the band room, which is not monitored by security cameras—“a fact Childers knew and exploited to commit the abuse undetected,” according to the complaint. Another assault occurred five days after the boy’s mother reported the teacher’s sexual abuse to school authorities.
“Throughout this period, the signs of Childers’ predatory conduct were visible to those who should have been watching,” the complaint alleges.
Don Hayes—the school’s band director and Childers’ direct supervisor—allegedly became suspicious enough in the spring of 2024 to directly ask the student whether Childers was “doing anything inappropriate.”
The student denied the abuse, and Hayes took no further action—failing to report his suspicions to any district officials or the student’s parents, or to limit contact between Childers and the student.
“This failure to act was consistent with AISD’s inadequate training and policies for detecting, reporting, and preventing educator sexual abuse,” the complaint states.
On July 21, 2024, the student’s mother reported to the Austin ISD Police Department that Childers was sexually abusing her son.
“This was not a vague rumor or secondhand gossip—this was a direct report from the victim’s mother to law enforcement personnel employed by the District, personnel with clear authority to investigate crimes and institute corrective measures,” the complaint states.
Yet Austin ISD’s response was “nothing.”
Despite receiving a direct report of ongoing sexual abuse of a minor student by a teacher, AISD took no action whatsoever. AISD did not suspend Childers. AISD did not remove Childers from the classroom. AISD did not issue a no-contact order. AISD did not separate Childers from J.E. in any way. AISD did not notify J.E.’s parents that protective measures were being implemented—because no protective measures were implemented.
The complaint notes that Austin ISD’s “own policies and Title IX procedures designate the AISD Police Department as a recognized channel for reporting suspected misconduct involving students, and the Chief of AISD Police reports through the chain of command to the Superintendent.”
Austin ISD police finally questioned Childers on July 31—10 days after the mother reported his abuse of her son—at which time the teacher allegedly confessed to sexually abusing the student and was arrested.
The complaint adds that Austin ISD’s own Title IX investigation found Childers was responsible for sexually harassing and assaulting the student.
The lawsuit also points to criminal investigators’ discovery of a second victim as evidence of a “pattern of predatory conduct” by Childers.
“This was not an isolated incident or a single lapse in judgment—this was systematic predation,” the complaint states.
The lawsuit asserts claims against Austin ISD and Childers for Fourteenth Amendment violations of the student’s right to bodily integrity.
The suit also asserts the district is liable for deliberate indifference to a reported Title IX violation, and for failing to implement adequate policies and training for employees to recognize, report, and respond to signs of grooming and sexual abuse of students, among other claims.
The student’s mother is seeking compensatory damages, including for her son’s medical expenses and therapy costs, as well as punitive damages against Childers.
Online records show Childers joined Austin ISD in the 2023-24 school year. He previously taught in Hearne ISD, McDade ISD, and Houston ISD.
Childers received one-year probationary teaching certificates for music in 2015 and 2016.
His 2023 intern certification, which expired in 2024, is currently under review by the Texas Education Agency.
Childers is also listed as “under investigation” in the state’s Do Not Hire Registry.
In just the past few years, hundreds of Texas school employees have been accused of sex crimes involving students and other children.
The TEA’s Educator Misconduct Reporting Dashboard shows that the agency is currently investigating more than 2,400 sexual misconduct complaints and opening an average of 260 new cases each month.
