A Lampasas High School teacher was fired Tuesday for what was termed inappropriate communication with a student. The announcement was made in a letter from Principal Paul Weinheimer to LHS families that same day.
Lampasas ISD Superintendent Dr. Chane Rascoe told the Dispatch Record the school district worked with the Lampasas Police Department to investigate whether the communication was criminal in nature. Through preliminary investigations, LPD has not found anything between the former educator and student to be unlawful.
Rascoe said a student reported the inappropriate communication between the teacher and student, leading school administrators to begin investigating the matter. The superintendent was notified by a campus administrator, and Rascoe said he reported the matter to the police department.
LPD Sgt. Jeremy Herring assisted in the investigation, according to Rascoe.
The police officer spoke with witnesses and learned there had been messages between the teacher and a student on Snapchat, the superintendent said.
LPD Patrol Lt. Chuck Montgomery confirmed to the Dispatch Record that through preliminary investigations, the communications between the teacher and student did not reveal any signs of an improper relationship, which is a violation of the Texas Penal Code.
“They [LPD] determined at that point there was no criminal activity or anything related to a criminal act that had taken place,” Rascoe said. “In my opinion, I would like to see legislation changed where any type of communication with a child without a parent knowing about it on a platform like Snapchat should be [restricted] in some type of law.”
The superintendent met with the teacher in question on Tuesday before deciding to fire the faculty member from the district. The teacher is non-certified, which Rascoe said allowed him more flexibility to release the employee from the school district in a swift manner.
Rascoe reiterated that the school district has educated its staff about having no communication with students unless parents are aware.
“We’ve trained them to not communicate without the parents knowing about it, and you can’t use social media like Snapchat, Instagram to do that,” he said. “This situation was obvious that they [the former teacher] did it intentionally.”
