Two female teachers were sentenced to probation after admitting to sex crimes involving students.
Neither woman will be required to register as a sex offender.
Former Forsan Independent School District coach Kendall Jaye Phillips, 26, pleaded guilty to improper relationship between educator and student, a second-degree felony publishable by 2 to 20 years in prison.
On January 29, Phillips was sentenced to seven years in prison, but the sentence was suspended. Instead, she will serve 10 years of supervised probation, which includes 300 hours of community service.
As part of her plea deal, the court ordered Phillips to take sex offender education classes, but she is not required to register as a sex offender.
The court also ordered Phillips to surrender her teaching certificate. However, state records show she was not issued a certificate. Phillips is currently listed as “under investigation” in the Texas Education Agency’s Do Not Hire Registry, a list of people ineligible to be employed by a public school. Only those listed as “not eligible” are barred from employment.
Phillips was arrested in November 2022 and indicted by a Howard County grand jury in May 2023 for having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old female student and exchanging nude photos with the girl.
Phillips’ father, Jason Phillips, has been a coach at Forsan ISD for 20 years. He retired in January as athletic director and head football coach, but he is still the district’s dean of students and head girls softball coach.
In a similar case, former Rockdale ISD teacher Shawnee Nicole Despain, 26, pleaded guilty to improper relationship between educator and student.
Despain was sentenced on February 14 to 10 years of probation and fined $3,000.
Her plea deal also requires Despain to surrender her teaching certificate and submit to sex offender evaluation and treatment, if recommended. Despain’s certification is currently under review by the TEA.
Like Phillips, Despain is not required to register as a sex offender.
Under Texas law, the crime of improper relationship between educator and student does not require sex offender registration.
Despain was a teacher at Rockdale High School when she was arrested in November 2023 for having sex with a 17-year-old male student and possessing child pornography.
She was alone with the boy multiple times in her classroom, school surveillance video showed, as well as at her home when her husband was away.
Despain also kept a Snapchat video showing her and the student having sex.
The teacher had a baby with her victim.
According to a report by KWTX, Milam County District Attorney Brian Price argued that Despain deserved prison time because “she was in a position of power and trust over her students and she used that to abuse this young man, and that is going to affect him his entire life.”
In just the past few years, hundreds of Texas teachers—male and female—have been accused of sex crimes involving students and other children.
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