Texas Middle School Coach Arrested For Grooming a Student

Sergio Gonzalez, a former coach at A.C. New Middle School in Mesquite, was arrested Wednesday after being accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a middle school student. The Balch Springs Police Department reported that Gonzalez now faces a third-degree felony charge for child grooming.

Mesquite school officials first reported concerns to the police about Gonzalez’s interactions with a student. After receiving the report, Balch Springs Police, with help from the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Forney Police Department, began an investigation. Police arrested Gonzalez at his home on Wednesday.

Once the school district learned about the allegations, they put Gonzalez on leave. He resigned shortly after. Gonzalez had worked with the Mesquite Independent School District as a teacher and coach since 2004.

Get our free mobile app

In a statement, district officials stressed their commitment to student safety, saying, “Our commitment is to provide a nurturing environment where every student feels safe, respected, and empowered to pursue excellence. Anything less than that is unacceptable.”

Gonzalez is currently in custody at the Dallas County Jail.

Another Texas coach was recently in Texas headlines after orchestrating a massive million-dollar scheme.

A major teacher certification scam in Houston has been exposed, exposing a million-dollar operation that issued fake teaching credentials to unqualified individuals throughout the district.

Since May 2020, the operation has reportedly allowed more than 200 unqualified teachers to enter classrooms by purchasing fraudulent certifications, often paying fees as high as $2,500 to skip the certification process. Over 20 teachers have admitted to buying these fake credentials, sparking an ongoing investigation to uncover the scheme’s full scope.

Key players in the operation included a Houston head basketball coach, who allegedly made over $1 million through these sales.