Bill Would Require Texas Police to Tell Schools about Employe Investigations

Almost a year after a Klein ISD cosmetology teacher was arrested on child sex-trafficking charges, leaders are trying to ensure that school districts are never left uninformed about investigations into their employees again.

Authored by State Rep. Sam Harless R-Spring, a bill coined "The PROTECT Act," would close a "dangerous communication gap" that Superintendent Jenny McGown said now exists between law enforcement and school districts.

Last April, former teacher Kedria Grigsby was arrested on child sex-trafficking charges. One year earlier, Klein ISD was made aware of a police report filed by another teacher that named Grigsby, but allegedly were told by law enforcement that Grigsby was not a suspect, although the Harris County Sheriff's Office could not find a record of that call.

Still, when Grigsby became a suspect in the HCSO's investigation, likely months before the initial charges were filed, the district said it wasn't notified. The next time they heard about the case from authorities was when she was arrested, officials said.

House Bill 4125, filed on Monday, would force a law enforcement agency to at least notify a school district when its employee is a suspect in a serious investigation, giving the district a legal avenue to take action, such as placing the employee on leave, if student safety could be at risk.

"(This is) something we don't want any other school district or any other child or family to experience, so we got to work pretty quickly to identify how could this happen in our own backyard, and what can we do to ensure that it doesn't happen again," said Klein ISD Police Chief Marlon Runnels Thursday.

In the wake of the arrest, Klein ISD families were angered that vulnerable students were at risk of being sex-trafficked by a teacher in their own district. The board responded by renewing their commitment to safety in the district with a unanimous resolution last May.

"One of the things that we promised our community is that we would work to get legislation passed that would close this interagency communication gap," McGown said. "We want to make sure that we have all the tools available to us to keep our students safe, period."

Both leaders have been informing the community of this legislation. McGown said that constituents were shocked that this wasn't already a law, especially because a school district is notified when a student is arrested or involved in a serious case.

"This is common sense safety legislation," McGown said. "At the end of the day, if there is an individual who is working with children, people's children, we need to make sure that if they are under investigation for a serious crime, that the school district is informed, so that we can take appropriate action."

Runnels, who also is the vice president of the Houston area Police Chiefs Association, said he had asked colleagues across different agencies if this would be supported, and he said he received positive feedback that it could be easily implemented.

He said he also reached out to the Texas Education Agency on the policy side and that representatives he spoke with were supportive.

Harless, who represents parts of Klein, Cy-Fair, Spring and Tomball ISDs, said this bill was a priority in ensuring student safety.

"I filed HB 4125 with the encouragement of Klein ISD and in consideration of the circumstances surrounding incidents involving criminal investigations of school employees in our public schools," Harless said in a statement. "Our desire is to support and foster greater collaboration between law enforcement, school police, and school administrators to provide a safe educational environment for our children, while being fair to school employees."

According to the proposal, a law enforcement agency that initiatives an investigation, makes an arrest, secures an indictment, or formally charges an educational institution employee for the following offenses would be required to notify a school district.

An offense under Title 5 of the Penal Code including: Criminal Homicide, Kidnapping, Unlawful Restraint, and Smuggling of Persons, Trafficking of Persons, Sexual Offenses, Assaultive Offenses, if the alleged victim is a minor or a current student of the educational institution
Any offense under Chapter 43, Penal Code, including: child pornography, compelling prostitution, obscenity, employment harmful to a child or sexual performance by a child, if the alleged victim is a minor or a current student of the educational institution
Any felony offense, regardless of the age of the alleged victim, including: drug crimes, sex crimes, murder, aggravated assault or theft

The proposed legislation requires an agency to notify a school district if no charges are filed or a case is dismissed concerning an employee within two business days, to avoid a potentially adverse action taken by a district based on outdated information.

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