Texas high school teacher having sex with 15-year-old student arrested after staff received anonymous tip
BASTROP, TEXAS: A former Texas high school teacher has been arrested and charged after she was accused of having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old student, court records show.
Hailey Pardy, now 25, was 23-years-old when, on December 1, 2018, she had sexual intercourse with one of her teenage male students at the Bastrop High School where she was a teacher, according to the Austin American-Statesman.
The school administration received an anonymous tip about the relationship around nine months later on August 20, 2019, and was placed on leave the same day. On November 1, she was fired after the Bastrop school board voted unanimously to remove her from her position.
The incident was subsequently reported to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, the Bastrop County sheriff’s office, and to the State Board for Educator Certification, and an investigation was opened.
Pardy, of Shiner, was arrested by officers from the Round Rock police department this past Thursday, July 30, after she was indicted by a Bastrop County grand jury for having an improper relationship with a student. It is a second-degree felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
She was released from the Bastrop County jail over the weekend after posting $100,000 bail. A court date has not been set for the 25-year-old.
Speaking about the incident, school district spokesperson Kristi Lee insisted that Pardy's behavior was not reflective of that of the other teachers in their employment. "We have learned that a former probationary teacher was arrested last Friday, nearly a year after she was placed on administrative leave and later terminated. The action of this teacher does not represent the more than 1,300 caring, dedicated and talented educators who make up Bastrop ISD," she told the American-Statesman.
"The foundation of the teacher-student relationship is one of trust, and when that trust is violated, it angers and saddens us," she continued. "It goes against our very purpose, which is to teach children and provide them with opportunities to grow and be successful. Bastrop ISD does not tolerate those who seek to violate that trust and to abuse their professional responsibility. Our concern was then, and will continue to be, the safety, health and well being of our students."
According to a 2018 report in the Shiner Gazette, Pardy graduated from Texas State University in San Marcos in May 2018 with a bachelor's degree of Science in Education in Mathematics with a minor in Psychology. In 2016 and 2017, she received the Texas State Academic Achievement Award in Mathematics, and in 2018, she received the Texas State Academic Distinction Award in Mathematics. She was subsequently hired by Bastrop High School in the Fall of 2018 and earned an annual salary of $48,383, as per school district documents.
The Statesman reported that this is the second allegation of improper teacher-student relationships in the school districts in the last five years after a 2016 case involving another student and teacher. However, the district said that involved a student-teacher and not a certified teacher.