A North Texas high school coach has resigned amid allegations of an “inappropriate relationship” with a student.
Rylee Thomas Johnson was an assistant girls’ softball coach at Richland High School in the Birdville Independent School District.
Watchkeep identified Johnson, who is married, as the suspect. He has been scrubbed from the Birdville ISD website and the school’s softball coaching staff listing on MaxPreps, where he was previously included.
The school sent a message to families on Monday stating Birdville ISD officials had been notified that the North Richland Hills Police Department is “investigating a former Richland High teacher/assistant coach on allegations of an inappropriate relationship between an educator and a student.”
The message stated that the unnamed educator “has resigned and no longer works for BISD,” adding that “federal privacy laws” prevent the district from discussing specifics about personnel matters.
“The safety and well-being of our students are always our highest priority,” the school stated.
Once we received the report of the allegations, we acted swiftly in the interest of our students and immediately contacted the NRH police to investigate. In addition, the District has reported this concern to all appropriate authorities including the Texas Education Agency.
In a statement released Monday, North Richland Hills Police confirmed it is “conducting an investigation into a former Richland High School teacher regarding allegations of an inappropriate relationship between a teacher and a student.”
“We remain committed to allowing our team to gather evidence and conduct a thorough investigation. With the investigation ongoing, the department will release more details as they become available.”
Johnson graduated from Richland High School in 2018, where he played football and baseball.
He began coaching in 2021 at North Richland Middle School, then moved to the high school in 2024, according to a 2025 Richland Royals Football pamphlet. That year, Johnson was a freshman football offensive line/special forces coordinator.
Online records show Johnson first teaching in Birdville ISD in the 2022-23 school year.
Johnson has held a Texas teaching certificate for physical education since 2022 and added a certification for special education in 2024.
In the past few years, hundreds of Texas school employees have been accused of sex crimes involving students and other children, and thousands have been reported to the TEA for sexual misconduct.
TEA data shows the agency is currently investigating more than 3,000 educator sexual misconduct complaints and opening an average of 250 new cases each month.
Texas Scorecard maintains a map of known educator sexual misconduct arrests.
