A student abuse scandal unfolding in the Forney Independent School District has Texas families wondering how well teachers are vetted before they’re allowed in children’s classrooms and whether the state’s laws against passing the trash need another overhaul.
But a mom in nearby Garland ISD is not at all surprised, because she experienced the same behaviors involving the same special education teacher 10 years ago.
“I warned them,” the parent posted on social media in response to news about the Forney ISD scandal.
Forney ISD Allegations: Classroom Abuse, Failure to Report, and Passing the Trash
Crosby Elementary Principal Wendy Bailey and teacher Johnathan Michael were ousted from Forney ISD in April amid a multi-agency investigation into Bailey’s coverup of Michael’s alleged physical and sexual misconduct involving special education students.
Two teacher’s aides were also let go in April. They allegedly told Bailey they saw Michael inappropriately touch a student and make sexually explicit comments in the classroom. Michael was also accused of pushing a student and pinning another on the ground with his knee.
Michael, 45, was arrested in May and charged with two counts of injury to a child with intent to cause bodily injury and one count of child grooming, both felonies. He remains in the Kaufman County Jail, with bond set at $75,000 for each charge.
Bailey, 53, was arrested July 28 and charged with endangering a child and failure to report child abuse. She has since been released on bond.
Court documents reportedly revealed that Bailey failed to report the allegations against Michael to Child Protective Services or Forney ISD’s superintendent as required by law, but instead moved the student and one of the aides to a different classroom.
Bailey is also accused of recommending Michael for hire despite knowing the teacher had been accused of similar abuse and criminally charged under a different name a decade ago, when they both worked in Garland ISD.
The special ed teacher first applied for a job in Forney ISD in August 2025 under the name Michael Raymond Roell, then re-applied as Johnathan Michael and was hired in October 2025.
The investigation into Forney ISD, which involved the Texas Rangers, revealed that the teacher had changed his legal name in an apparent attempt to hide past abuse allegations made against him. The teacher’s father alleged Roell changed his name to Michael after Bailey said she couldn’t hire him under his old name.
Forney ISD stated in April the teacher had been hired under his new name “with a clean DPS and FBI fingerprint background check and clean certification,” so the district “had no knowledge of any prior issues.”
But an arrest affidavit reportedly revealed that Bailey had responded to a colleague’s submission of Roell’s resume with a picture of his past mugshot and a note saying “No thank you, LOLOLOL! Let’s try again:).”
Records show Bailey still scheduled an interview with Roell for August 20, but it was later canceled. That same day, Roell filed to legally change his name.
Roell/Michael’s History in Garland ISD
“I’m the mom of the student who had the case on him in 2016—the case this woman saw and laughed at,” mom Cherish Hooper posted to social media, in response to news about Bailey hiring Roell/Michael to work in Forney ISD. “So yeah I’m MORE THAN MAD!!!!”
In 2016, then-35-year-old Roell was accused of physically and sexually abusing male special education students at Hudson Middle School in Garland ISD. Classroom video showed Roell breaking a student’s arm. He was criminally charged with indecency with a child.
A jury acquitted Roell of the criminal charge, but in 2019 Garland ISD settled a federal civil rights lawsuit with families of three students who alleged Roell abused their children, including the Hoopers.
The Garland ISD parents had accused the district of “passing the trash” by swapping Roell and another teacher between campuses when abuse allegations arose against them.
Hooper told Texas Scorecard that at first, Roell seemed like an “amazing” teacher. “He won over everyone, all the parents. There were numerous red flags, but back then I didn’t notice.”
New allegations then arose against Roell in his new classroom at Hudson Middle School.
The lawsuit alleged that when parents complained, administrators asked them to keep quiet, saying “Mr. Roell is one of our best teachers. He takes kids home with him. You are ruining a good man. Please don’t ruin a good man.”
Allegations included Roell following boys into the bathroom, watching them urinate, then touching their private parts.
When authorities interviewed Hooper’s son, “he had to speak to someone without me, where he told them things I still don’t know to this day because he said he didn’t want me to know.”
Hooper told Texas Scorecard that courtroom paperwork errors led to Roell’s acquittal on the criminal charge. She said her son and another boy were forced at the last minute to testify in court, instead of his video statement to the Dallas Children’s Advocacy Center being presented, and they were “overwhelmed” by the questioning.
“I couldn’t sit in the courtroom as I had to testify, but my father was there and he said it was the worst thing he ever had to witness,” said Hooper.
Still, she said Roell was ready to plead guilty, but before his plea paperwork was submitted, the jury found him not guilty—Hooper says because they didn’t want him to be required to register as a sex offender.
“So he walked free,” said Hooper. “Now the madness at Forney.”
He wasn’t just a teacher, he was a Boy Scout group leader and a boys’ Sunday school teacher. At trial, they had 17 people I believe, if I remember right, who took the stand for him saying he would take their boys home after school, or he would babysit for them, he took their boys camping etc. NO ONE seemed to see these things as HUGE red flags but me and my attorney and family.
“Now look,” concluded Hooper. “I warned them.”
Passing the Trash From Garland to Forney
No record now exists of a teaching certificate issued to Michael Roell, the name under which Garland ISD hired the teacher and he was criminally charged and civilly sued.
Instead, state records show Johnathan Michael has held a Texas teaching certificate since 2008. He renewed his certification in March 2026 as a generalist and special education teacher.
It’s unclear how Roell was employed from the time he left Garland ISD until 2022.
Roell was hired to work in Dallas ISD in 2022-23 and 2023-24 but was reportedly removed after a special needs student accused him of watching them change clothes in a classroom, although the teacher was never charged in that incident.
Teacher discipline data published by the Open Records Project shows Roell was reported by CPS for in-school sexual abuse in January 2024, while working for Plano ISD. Again, no charge resulted from the report.
Denton ISD confirmed that it hired Roell in February 2025 but said he was only on campus for two days, until parents complained about his past history of abusing students.
The district said Roell passed pre-employment fingerprint-based background checks through the Texas Department of Public Safety and the FBI, which showed no criminal history.
Forney ISD had also stated its background checks based on Roell/Michael’s fingerprints showed no criminal history—likely due to the fact that he was not convicted.
An arrest with no conviction does not disqualify a teacher from being employed in a Texas public school.
Still, Bailey allegedly acknowledged knowing about the teacher’s troubled background when she recommended him to work with special needs elementary students in Forney ISD.
Online records also show that prior to becoming a principal in Forney ISD in the 2022-23 school year, Bailey was an assistant principal in Garlard ISD for several years—including during the 2015-16 school year when Roell/Michael was a teacher in that district and accused of abusing students.
In July, the State Board for Educator Certification indefinitely suspended Roell/Michael’s teaching credentials and placed him on the Do Not Hire Registry pending final resolution of the current criminal charges against him.
The investigations remains ongoing.
“As this is an active law enforcement matter, we continue to cooperate fully with the investigating agencies,” stated Forney ISD.
Texas’ Educator Misconduct Epidemic
Over the past few years, a growing number of Texas school employees have been accused of sex crimes involving students and other children, and thousands of educators have been reported to the Texas Education Agency for violent or sexual misconduct.
The TEA’s Educator Misconduct Reporting Dashboard shows the agency is currently investigating more than 2,500 sexual misconduct complaints.
Texas has had laws on the books since 2017 that prohibit “passing the trash”—moving educators accused of sexual misconduct to different schools or allowing them to quietly resign and find work in other districts.
A new educator misconduct reporting law passed last year as Senate Bill 571 strengthened measures to protect students from predators in schools.
In July, the federal government threatened to withhold federal funding from school districts that continue to pass the trash and fail to protect students from predatory teachers.
On Tuesday, Gov. Greg Abbott and House Speaker Dustin Burrows acknowledged that lawmakers must do more to protect Texas students.
“We must do better,” said Burrows. “While we have taken some action, we will take much more.”
Texas Scorecard maintains a map of known educator sexual misconduct arrests.
