Texas has temporarily suspended the credentials of a principal arrested for failing to report allegations that a teacher was abusing special needs students, after she had helped him fraudulently obtain his teaching job.
Wendy Rachel Bailey, 54, was the principal of Crosby Elementary in the Forney Independent School District.
Bailey was ousted in April and arrested in July on state felony charges of failure to report child abuse and endangering a child.
Investigators alleged Bailey covered up physical and sexual abuse of special education students by a teacher known as Johnathan Michael that occurred in his Crosby classroom throughout the 2025-26 school year.
State Board for Educator Certification members voted to temporarily suspend Bailey’s teaching credentials during a September 10 meeting.
An educator misconduct reporting law (Senate Bill 571), passed last year with overwhelming bipartisan support, requires SBEC to suspend certificates of educators arrested for certain serious crimes and add them to the state’s Do Not Hire Registry until criminal cases against them are finally resolved.
The Texas Education Agency’s Educator Investigations Division receives and reviews arrest reports and misconduct allegations, then recommends disciplinary actions to SBEC members.
Texas Scorecard confirmed with the TEA that Bailey changed the name on her certification to Wendy Rachel Huckabee.
Bailey/Huckabee was also added to the Do Not Hire Registry on September 10, making her ineligible for hire by a Texas public school.
Michael, 45, was arrested in May on state felony charges of injury to a child with intent to cause bodily injury and child grooming, and is being held in the Kaufman County Jail. He was added to the registry and had his credentials suspended in July.
A federal criminal complaint filed August 14 alleges Bailey helped Michael hide past abuse allegations from his time teaching in Garland ISD (where Bailey also worked for several years) and encouraged him to change his name so he could get hired by Forney ISD.
Investigators discovered the teacher had legally changed his name from Michael Raymond Roell to Johnathan Michael in the fall of 2025, updated his teaching certificate accordingly, and lied on his application to Forney.
On September 16, the principal and teacher were indicted on federal wire fraud charges related to the scheme. If convicted, they face up to 20 years in prison.
The federal case against Bailey/Huckabee and Roell/Michael is tentatively set for a jury trial on November 9, 2026, before U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr of the Northern District of Texas.
Other Temporary Suspensions
Ten other teachers were also put on “do not hire” status and had their credentials placed on indefinite suspension in September as a result of arrests for serious crimes.
Allegra Fey Mora, certified since 2021, was arrested in June on a state charge of improper relationship between educator and student, a second-degree felony punishable by 2 to 20 years in prison. Mora was a teacher in Muleshoe ISD at the time of the alleged offense, which occurred during the 2025-26 school year and involved a 17-year-old Muleshoe High School student.
In September, a federal grand jury indicted Mora on a charge of enticement of a minor, which carries a sentence of up to 10 years in federal prison.
Richard A. Butler, who has held lifetime certifications to teach PE and biology since 1974, was arrested in July for injury to a child or an elderly or disabled individual with intent to cause bodily injury, a third-degree felony. Butler, who spoke during the September 10 meeting, told SBEC members the allegations involve his wife and he “would never injure her.”
Bethany Charboneau, certified as an educational aide since 2021, was arrested in May on a charge of injury to a child involving a 4-year-old student at the Haynes Head Start campus in Wichita Falls ISD.
Robert Lee Covington III, a certified math teacher since 2007, was arrested July 21 on a charge of assaulting a family member. Covington worked in Socorro ISD as an SCEI (state compensatory education intervention) coach, according to his LinkedIn page.
Ashley Nichole Galeazzi was certified in 2025 as an educational aide.
Warren K. Holmon, a certified music teacher since 2016, was arrested on July 7 for online solicitation of a minor, a third-degree felony. Holmon had worked for Fort Bend ISD since the 2016-17 school year.
Lorraine Jordan has been a certified science teacher since 2008.
Derek Liles has been certified to teach social studies since 2016.
Cosme Pena, a “master teacher” certified since 2011, was arrested July 8 in Burleson on a warrant out of Pharr, and booked into the Hidalgo County Jail on July 15 on a charge of continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14 or disabled person. The offense date is listed as 2010. Pena began teaching in Pharr-San Juan-Alamo ISD in the 2019-20 school year.
Ryan Michael Reece. Online state certification records do not show any teaching credentials issued in this name.
Educator misconduct reports tripled in fiscal year 2026 to 19,766, and criminal history alerts on school employees hit 27,655.
Placements on the Do Not Hire Registry nearly doubled to 1,079, the highest since the registry was established in 2020. This year’s additions to the DNHR included 624 permanent placements and 455 temporary placements.
The TEA’s Educator Misconduct Reporting Dashboard shows the agency is currently investigating more than 13,000 complaints and opening an average of 1,141 new cases each month.
