Another HISD staffer arrested
Questions surround district police amid third indecency case filed early last year
For the third time in the past several days, a current or former Houston ISD employee has been arrested on a child indecency charge stemming from allegations made by a student in early 2019.
In all three cases, HISD officials did not answer questions as to why the district’s police officers took about a year to arrest the staff members. None of the three arrest reports include information suggesting that district police uncovered new evidence that prompted the arrests.
Police arrested longtime Cunningham Elementary School substitute teacher Qamrul Haque, 74, on a felony charge Monday following accusations he inappropriately touched a then-9-year-old student on campus. Haque’s arrest came on the same day that police booked Lockhart Elementary School kindergarten teacher James Alan Bradley and two days after the jailing of former Kashmere Gardens Elementary School fourth-grade teacher Raymon Williams.
In a statement Tuesday, HISD officials briefly outlined the employment histories of the three current and former staffers, while offering only one additional detail about the police department’s investigations.
District officials said Haque and Williams did not return to HISD campuses after police learned about allegations levied by students. Bradley continued teaching after an HISD internal investigation “was unable to substantiate the allegations,” district officials said. It is unclear whether HISD police or district administrators conducted the internal investigation.
All three cases involved similar
allegations of male staff members inappropriately touching female elementary school students.
In Haque’s case, the 9year-old girl said she was sitting at her desk in January 2019 when she asked him for help on how to spell a word in class. The girl told investigators Haque proceeded to place his hands on her shoulders and moved them down to her breast. The student said she tried to escape Haque’s grasp, prompting him to grab her clothing and pull her back, according to a police report.
The report contains no additional details about the encounter or any corroborating witness accounts and does not reference any information learned after February 2019, when the girl completed a forensic interview.
In their statement Tuesday, HISD officials said “multiple students reported to campus staff that Mr. Haque engaged in inappropriate touching and other misconduct with students.” However, the HISD police report makes no mention of allegations from other students.
District officials said Haque, an employee for nearly 30 years, was “removed from the campus immediately and exited from the HISD substitute pool following the completion of the district’s investigation.” The district’s statement does not specify when the investigation was completed.
In Bradley’s case, investigators said a kindergartner at Foster Elementary School reported in February 2019 that he molested her on campus while she temporarily was assigned to another classroom. Bradley taught pre-kindergarten at Foster at the time, according to HISD payroll records.
The kindergartner underwent a forensic medical examination in April 2019, reporting that Bradley touched her genitals on multiple occasions, according to a police report.
HISD investigators met with the kindergartner last Friday and presented her with a photograph of Bradley, whom she positively identified as the man who touched her. The police report does not explain why officers approached the girl with the photo 10 months after the forensic examination.
HISD officials said Tuesday that Bradley, a 14-year veteran of the district, immediately was placed on home duty following the initial allegation and remained away from school grounds throughout the 2018-19 school year. Bradley returned to teaching for the 2019-20 school year, however, and was assigned to Lockhart Elementary.
“After reviewing the information this school year, HISD Police Department contacted the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, who, after reviewing the information, accepted charges of indecency with a child,” district officials said. They did not elaborate on what prompted HISD police to re-examine the case.
In Williams’ case, four students came forward in January 2019 to report that he inappropriately touched them and made them feel uncomfortable.
One girl, who was 10 at the time, told authorities in February and March 2019 that Williams touched her shoulder and inner thigh multiple times, rubbed her between her legs at least once and “rubbed over his crotch area” in front of other students, according to a police report. Parents of the three other students did not allow their children to cooperate with investigators.
Williams’ arrest report does not include any new evidence gathered between March 2019 and his arrest. District officials said Tuesday that Williams was reassigned to home duty after the initial allegations, never returned to a campus and is “no longer employed by the district.”
HISD officials did not respond to questions about whether district administrators reported Williams to the State Board for Educator Certification, which conducts investigations in some cases involving teachers accused of sexual misconduct. It is unclear from the district’s statements, however, whether state law mandated that HISD officials report Williams to the board.
It is not immediately known whether Haque or Williams sought employment in any other school districts following the allegations. HISD officials have not commented on Bradley’s job status.
All three men have been released on bail. A magistrate set Williams’ bail at $100,000, twice the amount requested by prosecutors, after finding “concerns for community safety.”