A Splendora High School teacher is facing felony charges after investigators determined she fabricated an assault and inflicted her own injuries to stage the scene.
Nicole Truelove, 53, was taken into custody Thursday morning after a panic alarm she activated sent the campus into lockdown and brought roughly 100 law enforcement officers from multiple agencies to the school, according to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office.
Investigators reviewed surveillance footage, interviewed witnesses, and collected physical evidence before concluding that no student had attacked Truelove and that her wound was self-inflicted using a blade. She has been charged with felony tampering with evidence and filing a false report.
The Texas Education Agency opened an investigation into Truelove on Thursday.
This is not Truelove’s first run-in with law enforcement or controversy. Texas DPS records show she was arrested on theft charges twice in the early 1990s, receiving 180 days of probation in both cases, and was arrested a third time on theft charges in June 2015, according to the Cleveland Police Department.
TEA records show she had worked for several southeast Texas school districts, including Shepherd ISD, Coldspring ISD, and Houston ISD, before joining Splendora ISD about a year ago.
District officials said nothing in her employment history flagged during the hiring process.
Meanwhile, a former Aldine ISD teacher is facing two counts of felony unlawful restraint after a student told police the teacher pulled her from class under the guise of English proficiency sessions and restrained her in his office on multiple occasions.
Jose Borjas, who taught at Victory Early College High School, resigned from the district in December 2025 before an investigation into his conduct was completed, according to Harris County court records.
The student described being taken to Borjas’ darkened office, where he used strips torn from a T-shirt to bind her hands, feet, and mouth, and on two occasions recorded her while directing her to act as though she had been kidnapped, court documents state. She said the incidents happened five times.
Investigators say Borjas later contacted the student over the summer through personal email and sent her sexually suggestive messages on TikTok before she blocked him.
The Harris County District Attorney’s Child Crimes Division has accepted the charges.
Aldine ISD said it placed Borjas on administrative leave immediately upon learning of the allegations, reported the matter to law enforcement, DFPS, and TEA. The district has not identified any additional victims.
