UPDATED September 1 with additional information from Valley View ISD.
A North Texas principal was arrested for failing to report a student’s outcry of sexual abuse involving obscene AI-generated images of the boy.
Joanne Marie Keeler, 50, was arrested Tuesday on a charge of failure to report child abuse. The offense is a Class A misdemeanor or a state jail felony if done with intent to conceal.
Keeler was hired in June as the assistant principal of Valley View Elementary. She no longer appears in the school’s the staff directory.
The alleged offense occurred during the last school year, while Keeler was principal of Bowie High School in the Bowie Independent School District.
Keeler was arrested on campus, according to a statement from Valley View Independent School District.
Valley View ISD did not name Keeler but stated that the arrest did not involve any of its district staff or students, and that the “circumstances leading to the arrest were brought to the attention of district administration shortly before the arrest.”
Keeler was booked into the Cooke County Jail on August 25, following an Montague County grand jury indictment on August 20, and was released on a $15,000 bond.
Bowie ISD also released a statement regarding Keeler’s arrest, indicating that “no Bowie ISD employee was alleged to have engaged in abuse or neglect involving students.”
The district stated that local police initiated an investigation and were assisted by the Texas Rangers and district attorney’s office.
The city of Bowie’s chief of police, Guy Green, is also an elected Bowie ISD school board trustee, creating a conflict of interest in district-related investigations.
According to a report by Bowie News Online, Green said the offense occurred in January 2026 and involved a 17-year-old male high school student who was the alleged target of obscene AI-generated images that were circulated among other students.
The boy reported the images to Keeler on January 16. She told Assistant Principal Clay Cody on January 17 and instructed him to investigate. Cody then notified Bowie police on January 19.
Once an investigation began, Bowie ISD placed Keeler on leave for the remainder of the 2025-26 school year, and she submitted her resignation for the following school year. In March of 2026, the district sought a replacement for Keeler.
Keeler was still under investigation at the time she resigned from Bowie ISD and was hired by Valley View ISD.
On September 1, Valley View ISD released a “community update” stating that Keeler did not disclose details of the Bowie ISD investigation to the district.
“At the time the employee was hired, the employee did not provide information concerning the circumstances related to this matter, and the District had no knowledge of those circumstances until shortly before the employee’s arrest on campus,” the district stated, without naming Keeler.
“The employee and the District have since mutually agreed to part ways.”
Valley View ISD did not clarify if Bowie ISD had indicated Keeler was eligible for re-hire.
The Texas Education Agency confirmed to Texas Scorecard that Bowie ISD reported Keeler to the State Board for Educator Certification on January 30. Following a “preliminary investigation,” her teaching certificate was flagged as under review on July 27—after she was hired by Valley View ISD.
Keeler is also now listed as “under investigation” on the state’s Do Not Hire Registry.
She was first certified to teach physical education in 2001 and received a principal certification in 2015.
Keeler worked as a principal in Bowie ISD starting in the 2022-23 school year until she was placed on leave in early 2026. She previously worked in Denton ISD for more than a decade, as a teacher and assistant principal.
In Texas, all adults are mandatory reporters of suspected child abuse.
Professional employees including educators are required to report abuse allegations within 24 hours and may not delegate to or rely on another person to make the report.
Failure to report abuse can also lead to sanctions on an educator’s professional certification.
The definition of abuse includes “causing, permitting, encouraging, engaging in, or allowing the photographing, filming, or depicting of the child if the person knew or should have known that the resulting photograph, film, or depiction of the child is obscene.”
“Bowie ISD has a no tolerance policy for any potential misconduct with respect to students and will take swift and appropriate action to maintain a safe environment which nurtures student learning and growth,” stated Superintendent Donna Hale.
Hale joined Bowie ISD in July 2025. She previously served as assistant superintendent for Perryton ISD during the student sex abuse scandal involving coach Cole Underwood, who was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison.
In August 2025, Chief Green and other Bowie ISD trustees were blamed for the suicide of Justin Kuecher, a local father who had recorded himself applying to run for school board. His audio recording captured Hale and her assistant Kelli Ragsdale mocking the candidate.
After the audio was posted to social media, trustees including Green voted to have Hale file what critics called a “bogus” felony charge, and Bowie police issued a warrant for Kuecher’s arrest.
In March 2026, former Bowie High School paraprofessional Matthew Conley was charged with six counts of statutory rape for alleged sexual assaults of a student that occurred during the 2015-16 school year.
