A Reserve Officers’ Training Corps instructor was sentenced to six months in county jail after he was found guilty of sexual contact with a female Prosper ISD student.
Michael Christopher Songy, 44, was convicted in October by a Collin County jury of indecent assault, a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail.
Songy was sentenced Thursday by Judge David Waddill in County Court at Law 7.
“You were held to a higher standard. You failed,” Judge Waddill told the now-former educator as he handed down the sentence of six months in Collin County Jail. The defense had asked for probation.
Songy was a Junior ROTC instructor at Rock Hill High School in the Prosper Independent School District at the time of the assault, which occurred in 2025.
He was arrested in May 2025 on one count of indecent assault. A second count was filed in December 2025; the first charge was dismissed when the case went to trial.
A jury convicted Songy after hearing evidence that he touched a female JROTC student’s breast. She said he then gave her a sticky note with his phone number.
According to court testimony, other female students reported similar inappropriate behavior by Songy.
An earlier sexual misconduct complaint against Songy was reported to the Texas Education Agency in July 2024.
The female student who filed that complaint testified during Thursday’s sentencing hearing that Songy had kissed her on the cheek while in a supply closet at the school. She was a freshman at the time and is now a senior.
“Anyone could tell you” that Songy’s behavior made students uncomfortable, she testified, describing how he was overly “friendly” and “very touchy” with females, often hugging girls and putting his hands on their backs.
The girl said she feared retaliation if she spoke up but eventually told a teacher about Songy’s behavior. That teacher reported the incident to Prosper ISD Police. The girl said the police talked to a couple more students then told her there was “nothing we can do.”
The TEA did not open a formal investigation, and Prosper ISD hired Songy back for the 2024-25 school year.
“I don’t want this to happen again,” the girl told the court.
A second female Prosper ISD student also testified Thursday.
The girl, another senior who was a JROTC student under Songy as a freshman and sophomore, told the court Songy “seemed slimy” when she first met him at a booth promoting the district’s JROTC program, “like a used car salesman.”
She testified that she had witnessed Songy asking two female students if their coworkers were attractive, using the word “bad,” and said he would drop his keys in front of female students and watch as he directed the girls to pick them up. She also said she saw Songy putting his arm around girls in the supply room in a way that was “more than friendly.”
“I felt kind of grossed out,” she testified, adding that she had reported Songy’s behavior to a counselor.
Songy did not testify during Thursday’s hearing, but two witnesses testified on his behalf.
Songy’s 26-year-old son called him “my superhero” and said he did not believe his father committed the acts described by previous witnesses, despite Songy’s conviction.
“He would never do that,” he said.
A longtime family friend told the court they are “like a family” and said she also did not believe Songy committed the crime for which a jury convicted him, although she had never seen him around his female students.
She said it was “an honor working with him” in the commercial cleaning business he started “after the teaching ended” and that Songy has “a lot of integrity.”
During closing arguments, defense attorneys Rachel Ferraro and Carly Cook told the court that Songy had abided by his bond conditions for the past 18 months and was therefore a good candidate for probation.
The defense also noted that Songy had served in the military and is married with four children, including three daughters. His wife, Jaclyn Songy, is an assistant principal at Nelson Middle School in Frisco ISD.
Collin County prosecutor Caitlyn Jones argued that Songy had abused his position of authority as an educator to take advantage of students and asked for the maximum jail time of one year.
“What we’re seeing here is escalation,” added prosecutor Logan Goodwin, noting the 2024 investigation of similar behavior by Songy.
Goodwin said jail was needed as a deterrent to adults in the community behaving inappropriately with kids entrusted to their care. “It’s got to stop.”
In a victim impact statement, the student Songy was convicted of assaulting told him and the court that she was glad he will never again be able to work at the school and hurt other students.
“I looked up to you, respected you, trusted you,” she said. “I love JROTC, but now some of those memories are tainted.”
She also described the anxiety she’s felt and her fear of encountering him in public. “I hope I never have to look at your face again,” she concluded, just before Songy was taken to jail.
Songy worked in Prosper ISD for eight years, starting in 2017 as a science teacher at Reynolds Middle School, then moving in 2022 to Rock Hill High School where the district’s JROTC program is based. He previously taught in Forney ISD and Dallas ISD.
He has held a Texas teaching certificate since 2015. Songy received an emergency permit in August 2024 to teach Junior ROTC. His credentials are under review by the Texas Education Agency.
Songy will not be required to register as a sex offender, as indecent assault is not a crime that requires registration.
He is among hundreds of Texas school employees charged with sex crimes involving students and other children in just the past few years, and thousands have been reported to the TEA for sexual misconduct.
TEA’s Educator Misconduct Reporting Dashboard shows the categories and quantity of complaints the agency is currently investigating.
Texas Scorecard maintains a map of known educator sexual misconduct arrests.
