Former Waco ISD special education teacher charged in sexual assault case involving student

By TIM WOODS
Waco Tribune-Herald

Thursday, August 07, 2008

A 26-year-old former Brazos Middle School special education teacher was arrested Wednesday after Waco police investigators alleged that she was having sex and smoking marijuana with a 14-year-old student from the school.

Tara Allison Hodges, now living in Katy, Texas, surrendered to police Wednesday morning and was charged with sexual assault of a child and improper relationship between educator and student, said Waco police Sgt. Melvin Roseborough.

Both charges are second-degree felonies. Hodges remained in the McLennan County Jail late Wednesday, held in lieu of $300,000 bond, a jail spokeswoman said.

Hodges' arrest warrant affidavit states that she "had sexual contact with (the 14-year-old boy) on at least 10 seperate occasions, and that during several of these encounters Tara Allison Hodges also smoked marijuana with (the boy)."

She was not charged with any drug-related offenses, officials said.

The affidavit says the sexual relationship lasted for about two months and specifically cites one occasion, on June 6, when Hodges picked the boy up in her car and took him to her apartment at Pecan Ridge Apartments, 2736 Lake Shore Drive, to have sex and smoke marijuana.

Hodges also gave the boy money and bought him shoes on at least two occasions, according to the affidavit.

Hodges' relationship with the boy extended until as recently as July 26, the affidavit says.

Waco Independent School District spokesman Dale Caffey said Wednesday he does not know whether the youth was a special education student.

Hodges had just completed her third year working for WISD as a special education inclusion teacher, he said. Inclusion teachers, as Caffey described, work with special education students to incorporate them into mainstream classrooms.

Caffey said Hodges resigned earlier this summer, telling WISD human resources that she had taken a teaching position in Katy. He said WISD officials learned of the police investigation last week.

"From the district's standpoint, when we learned of the investigation, we were shocked, extremely upset," Caffey said.

Caffey said the district does thorough background checks on all teaching hires, but acknowledged that it's not always possible to prevent such incidents, particularly when a job applicant's history gives no indication of threat.

"In this certain circumstance, I think it would have been hard to (foresee Hodges' alleged crimes)," Caffey said. "According to what I could see in her personnel file, this was her first professional teaching assignment."

Hodges' Web page on Facebook.com says she graduated from Texas State University in 2004 and lists her hometown as El Campo, Texas, just southwest of Houston. The page says she moved to Katy on Aug. 1.

Hodges' wrote on her Facebook page that her favorite TV shows included "Cops, I love shows about crime and I like watching prison, gang and drug documentaries for some reason!!!"

A current teacher at Brazos Middle School who asked to remain anonymous because he did not want his name associated with the story, said that he always knew Hodges as "a really nice person," and was surprised by the allegations. The teacher did not want to comment specifically about the charges.

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