An unnamed South Texas school employee is on leave following allegations of “inappropriate” messaging with a child who is not a student in the district.
San Benito Consolidated Independent School District posted a statement to social media on September 6:
The San Benito Consolidated Independent School District received information regarding inappropriate communications on the internet between an employee and a child not of the district. The employee has been placed on administrative leave.
The District will release additional information as the law permits and as soon as the District is able to legally release such information as this involves a personnel matter.
San Benito CISD is a 22-school district in Cameron County with about 1,500 full-time employees. Fewer than half are teachers.
The district gave no information about the accused employee, but a local resident commented on Facebook that students had “shared pics & texts of him way before this news broke out.”
In Texas, it is a felony for an adult to engage in sexually explicit communication with a minor, or for a school employee to engage in sexually explicit communication with any student regardless of the student’s age.
Hundreds of Texas educators have been accused of sex crimes involving students and other children in just the past few years.
Thousands of educator sexual misconduct complaints have been reported to the state since the Texas Education Agency began keeping organized records in 2021.
