Outright Dismissal Secured After Inappropriate Conduct Allegations
In 2014, while our Client, M.A., worked as a physics teacher at a public high school, a group of female students from the 11th grade would study in M.A.’s office during downtime. The door to M.A.’s office was always left wide upon, and the students would come and go as they pleased. M.A. had a purely platonic, professional relationship with the students, and she would often assist them with their assignments while they were in her office.
After the students graduated and reached majority age, M.A. and one of the students (“Student”) began texting one another. Eventually, the texting took on a romantic nature. After sending a flirtatious message, which she regretted, M.A. immediately deleted the Student’s contact information and did not reach out again. Shortly thereafter, M.A. received a series of calls in the dead of night – around 2:00 a.m. When she picked up the phone, M.A. was threatened by a female voice that if she did not resign due to her relationship with the Student, the caller would destroy her family and her career.
M.A. dutifully contacted leadership in her school district, described what happened and confessed her relationship with the Student. Shortly thereafter, M.A. was terminated and reported to the Texas Education Agency (“Agency”). After successful briefing and oral argument at an informal hearing, we secured an outright dismissal and cleared our Client’s name at the earliest available juncture of the case.