UPDATED March 31 with additional information about the dates of Swift’s removal from campus and resignation.
An athletic trainer who resigned from Belton Independent School District last year after he was caught watching child pornography while on campus, in view of students, has again delayed his trial.
He’s one of multiple Belton ISD educators charged with sexual misconduct in recent years, including a middle school orchestra director who’s now in prison for distributing child pornography.
Trevor Swift, 56, is accused of viewing porn during school “on or about May 10, 2022.”
U.S. marshals arrested Swift on May 26 and charged him with possession of visual depictions of sexual activity by minors, a federal felony.
A June 14 federal grand jury indictment added to the charge, saying the pornographic images viewed by Swift included “prepubescent minors and minors who had not attained twelve (12) years of age.”
He faces up to 20 years in prison.
Since his arrest, Swift has delayed his trial seven times.
On Friday, Judge Alan Albright granted Swift’s latest request for a continuance. His next scheduled court dates are in late May and early June.
Belton parents only learned about the child porn allegations against Swift through public information requests.
“This is yet another example of how the Belton ISD administration lacks transparency and accountability to parents and taxpayers here,” Belton mom Amanda Kelley told Texas Scorecard.
She and other parents are upset that the district allowed Swift to quietly resign and never notified them about his on-campus porn watching or subsequent arrest.
Kelley said Belton ISD Superintendent Matt Smith “refused even to provide basic answers about this serious issue.”
“I had every right to ask questions, because it happened at a school my child attended,” she said. Kelley has since pulled her two children from Belton ISD.
“I wanted transparency so that all the parents of students in Belton ISD that Trevor Swift might have had contact with were made aware of what happened and given the opportunity to have a discussion with their children,” she added. “In other similar cases, a transparent district will release a general statement informing parents that a teacher has received charges, was arrested, and no longer works there.”
Via an information request to the district, Kelley obtained an email that shows Swift notified the district of his resignation on May 2. An information request to the Texas Education Agency revealed that school officials reported Swift’s misconduct to the state on May 10, just within the required reporting deadline of seven business days.
Kelley says the incident happened weeks earlier and school officials knew about it. She said Swift was “escorted off campus” on April 14 or 15, and that the board of trustees discussed Swift’s case in a closed session during their April 18 meeting.
Parents also obtained a TEA report from September concluding that Swift “engaged in misconduct” under the Texas Education Code by “displaying harmful material to minors by his viewing of pornography while on campus and in view of students.”
TEA added Swift to the state’s Do Not Hire Registry as “not eligible for hire” in November. He doesn’t hold a state educator’s certificate.
Swift also claimed to be an athletic trainer at Shoemaker High School in Killeen ISD for more than a decade, but that district currently shows no listing for Swift in its staff directory.
“I am a protective parent,” Kelley said. “I am disgusted that the district has been so determined to stop parents, including me, from getting information about this and many other serious issues within the district.”
In addition to Swift’s arrest on child porn charges, parents’ information requests uncovered three other Belton ISD educators who recently lost their jobs and teaching certificates due to misconduct that school administrators never openly acknowledged.
Trey Shonkwiler, an assistant choir director at Belton High School from 2020 to 2022, voluntarily surrendered his educator’s certificate in September 2022 after violating the Texas Educators’ Code of Ethics by “soliciting or engaging in sexual conduct or a romantic relationship with a student or minor.” He reportedly sent a picture of his genitals to a student. Shonkwiler previously worked in Navasota ISD, where the FBI just arrested teacher Daniel Byrd for distributing child pornography.
Julio Ramirez, an English teacher, had his teaching certificate permanently revoked in February 2020 for unspecified misconduct.
Lydia Christensen proved the most shocking case. The South Belton Middle School orchestra director had her certificate revoked in December 2020 when she entered federal prison after being convicted of possessing and distributing child pornography showing children under the age of 12 engaged in sex acts.
Another child porn-watching Belton teacher did make the news in 2018.
Belton High School computer science teacher James Alleman III was arrested for having child porn on his school computer after he projected it onto a screen during a class. District officials called it “inappropriate use of technology.”
A statement telling parents that Alleman had resigned failed to mention he had porn at school and showed it to students. Belton ISD officials told media they don’t share “confidential” personnel information—even though the arrest documents were publicly available.
“I have no idea how to address all this,” said a frustrated Belton mom whose daughter was taught by Christensen. “I’m so tired of Belton shoving reality under the rug.”
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