Three educators at a charter school in Arlington, Texas are now facing felony charges stemming from alleged child grooming and an improper relationship with at least two students.
On Thursday, the Newman International Academy held a press conference announcing an ongoing investigation at its Gibbins campus, which serves 7th-12th grade students in Arlington. Two educators and a principal at the school have been accused of felony sexual abuse crimes, according to NBCDFW.
“Like many of the teachers and students here, we’re broken over what’s happened,” Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Schools Donna Hart, said during the press conference.
Hart announced that leadership changes were being made in response to the scandal.
Chief of Police Matthew Antkowiak said during the presser that two 7th-grade girls reported the situation at the school to police officers. He did not provide further detail into their report, but said police arrested a 53-year-old teacher’s aide, Ruel Barbee, into custody on the same day.
“That happened at 9:30 in the morning, and at 1 p.m. that afternoon, we had a probable cause warrant issued by a district judge, and he was in Tarrant County Jail,” Antkowiak said. “I want to be clear on this. The speed on this incident, the suspect was in jail five hours after the outcry.”
Barbee was charged with having an improper relationship with a student while acting as an educator, which is a second-degree felony.
Police continued to investigate the situation at the school and made two other arrests.
On February 10, police arrested Gabrielle Little, 20, who was arrested on felony child grooming. Little posted a $15,000 bond and was released.
Two days later, police arrested Gibbins campus principal Rick Adams on five counts of tampering with evidence, tampering with a witness, and failure to report abuse. All of his charges are felonies.
Adams was released after posting a total of $50,000 in bonds.
Barbee and Little were reportedly terminated immediately after they were arrested. Adams was initially placed on administrative leave with pay, but school officials said he later resigned.
“These individuals had nothing in their background to lead us to believe that they even committed an offense,” Antkowiak said. “What I know, not what I’m speculating, ma’am, is that we have come to knowledge of incidents at other institutions in DFW where they failed to take action when we know that they were aware of what occurred on their grounds, by their employee, that they allowed to resign while under investigation. Not acceptable.”
