IDEA teacher wasn’t certified to teach when he was arrested?

Charge: soliciting a minor online

If the arrest of IDEA Public Schools’ teacher/coach Daniel Valdez two weeks ago isn’t proof that teachers should be vetted on an annual basis by the school districts that employ them, then what is? While Valdez remains innocent until proven guilty of the felony crime for which he has been charged – soliciting a minor online – the truth remains: his teaching certificate had been revoked two years prior to his arrest; and yet he was allowed to remain at his IDEA teaching desk. He was also allowed to grab his whistle and pull down coaching assignments.

As reported by The Advance last week, the news of the arrest of IDEA’s teacher/coach Valdez, age 37, on Sept. 15 in Alice, Tx., hit the headlines of the local media outlets in not only Alice but also in the San Antonio metro area, and state news outlets as well. Why? Because even though Valdez worked at IDEA’s South Flores Academy, located in SA, police were asking for anyone whose daughter may have had inappropriate contact with Valdez to please come forward. No telling how much area that might have covered.

As of last week, according to The San Antonio Express-News, sheriff’s deputies in Jim Wells County, which includes the city of Alice, who are investigating the Valdez case, say that they have gotten “numerous similar complaints from San-Antonio parents about the charter-school teacher.”

According to San Antonio’s KENS5 TV station, Valdez stands accused of going to Alice the night of Sept. 15 in hopes of hooking up with a middle school student with whom he had allegedly been having contact via social media.

Allegedly, the girl finally concluded that her contact with Valdez had gone too far and told her parents that the IDEA teacher was harassing her. The young teen’s parents then contacted law enforcement.

According to The San Antonio Express-News story, after learning of the allegations, criminal investigators checked the girl’s cell phone and found graphic photos that Valdez had allegedly sent to her. It was after that, the Jim Wells Sheriff’s Department set up a sting operation to lure Valdez to Alice. Instead of making contact with the young teen, however, Valdez hooked up with sheriff’s investigators anxious to make his acquaintance.

After Valdez’s arrest, Jim Wells County Sheriff Daniel Bueno held a news conference, according to KENS5 (San Antonio), during which he said, “Anyone that messes with children in Jim Wells County will be handled by our department.”

The sheriff also cautioned parents to keep an eye on what their children are up to on social media.

“Those phones are under your names as parents,” he said. “You have every right to look into the history of those phones.” (KENS5 TV.)

Besides local law enforcement, according to the same TV report, both the FBI and the Texas Rangers are building a case against Valdez, looking into whether or not he has ever made contact with other minors, as he stands accused of having done in this Alice case.

According to KENS5 TV, Valdez made bail ($30,000) and then attempted to return to the IDEA San Antonio-based campus the following Monday morning. The public charter school, however, put him on paid administrative leave, and he left the IDEA campus, free to go home while still collecting a paycheck.

The Jim Wells County Sheriff’s Department is asking anyone who has information that may be of help in this case or any other alleged crimes against minors involving Daniel Valdez, to please call investigators at 361-668-0341. Apparently, as already mentioned, The Express-News is reporting that some parents have already come forth with similar complaints.

Teaching License

Revoked?

Last week, new revelations about IDEA’s Daniel Valdez were uncovered by San Antonio and state media outlets, including The Houston Chronicle.

In a story published by The Chronicle last week, without mentioning IDEA Public Schools by name, it was revealed that Valdez’s state teaching license was revoked two years ago by the TEA (Texas Education Agency), but he continued teaching/ coaching nonetheless. Why he lost his teaching license isn’t yet known.

The Chronicle story, however, also mentioned a troubling statistic: over a six-year period, 63 San Antonio-area teachers lost their teaching certificates after investigations were opened into their alleged inappropriate relationships with under-age students. Those teachers had their teaching licenses revoked, courtesy of TEA, or voluntarily relinquished them. Of those 63 teachers, 24 ended up being charged with a crime (The Houston Chronicle).

In the case of IDEA Public Schools (open-enrollment public charter school; now one of the largest operators in the U.S.), Valdez indeed lost his teaching certificate in late 2015, but by that time IDEA had already hired him that same September. Apparently, according to a story published by The San Antonio Express-News, TEA had been investigating Daniel Valdez since 2013.

After news made the rounds last week that IDEA had a teacher on its South Flores Academy campus whose teaching license had been revoked in 2015, the charter school’s vice president of marketing and communications, Vanessa Barry, told The Express-News that even though Valdez’s teaching certificate was valid when IDEA hired him, IDEA should have red-flagged the fact that he was still under investigation by the State Board for Educator Certification.

According to that Express-News story, in the future, IDEA Public Schools will conduct annual criminal background checks and certification reviews to ensure that its staff isn’t under investigation, said Barry.

After losing his state teaching certificate in late 2015, Daniel Valdez continued working for IDEA Public Schools as a teacher and coach for the next two years until his arrest went down two weeks ago in Alice; subsequently tagged with a felony criminal charge: Soliciting a minor online.

All of which begs the question: how many schools – traditional public; public charters; private schools – are running annual criminal background checks and certification checks on the teachers and school staff they employ?