Parents Worried After HEB ISD Teacher's Arrest
Follow CBSDFW.COM: Facebook | Twitter
HURST (CBSDFW.COM) - Parents in the HEB Independent School District are concerned after a teacher has been accused of inappropriate conduct with his students. This is now the third time that authorities are investigating such a case within this school district in less than a year.
HEB ISD Principal Charged With Soliciting A Child
Angel Sales used to teach third grade at Bellaire Elementary School in Hurst. The school district has taken the necessary steps to terminate his contract. Sales was on leave since May, when district officials first learned that he was under investigation.
Sales faces two charges of indecency with a child. But he was not actually arrested until last week, as U.S. Customs and Border Protection caught up with him at DFW International Airport. Sales was on his way back into the country. He has since bonded out of jail.
Hurst Teen Charged With Indecency With A Child
Parents are not happy about how they found out about this situation. One mother, whose children attend Bellaire Elementary School, said that she first learned about it through a recent voicemail from the district. A letter was sent out by the district in May, but "only to the third graders. They didn't send to the rest of the grades," stated Alma Orta. "So, I didn't know anything until I heard this message."
"A third grade teacher at Bellaire Elementary School was arrested by the Hurst Police Department," the message said, adding that he will not be returning to the school district.
"I was scared," Orta said. "What am I going to do with the kids?"
The school district explained that it goes beyond state requirements to perform multiple background checks on all of their new employees, and that was done with Sales as well. He began working for the district in August 2014.
"It is sad that today's news might somehow overshadow the exciting beginning of a new school year for so many fine students and staff of the district," the HEB ISD said in a statement.
