A now-former East Texas teacher and coach who used Snapchat to solicit nude pictures from male students and fondled the boys at school was sentenced to 60 years in state prison.
Taureaus Alvaro Maxwell Jr., 31, worked at the middle and high schools in Atlanta Independent School District in Cass County when he was arrested and charged in April 2023.
Two Atlanta High School boys accused Maxwell of soliciting sexually explicit photos via the Snapchat app and touching their genitals while they were at school. At least two other students testified to being victims of Maxwell’s online solicitation and sexual abuse.
A jury convicted Maxwell on four counts each of indecency with a child by contact and improper relationship between educator and student.
Both crimes are second-degree felonies, punishable by 2 to 20 years in prison.
KTAL News reported that the jury handed down the maximum sentence on each charge, and Judge Bill Miller ordered Maxwell to serve three of the 20-year sentences consecutively.
In Texas, a person convicted of indecency with a child is not eligible for parole until they serve at least half of their sentence, meaning Maxwell cannot be released before 2054.
KTAL also reported mistakes by school district officials when hiring Maxwell and investigating the allegations against him.
School officials failed to discover that Maxwell had been fired in June 2021 from his job as a Bowie County probation officer due to allegations of sexually inappropriate behavior while conducting urinalysis tests.
Evidence showed Maxwell lied on his application to Atlanta ISD when asked if he had ever been terminated, however, the district did not verify with his past employer, as Superintendent Jason Harris told prosecutors he would not have hired Maxwell if he had known.
Also, school resource officers who initially investigated the boys’ allegations concluded within days that no probable cause existed to make an arrest, but they failed to gather any evidence.
Maxwell’s behavior was first reported to school administrators on April 10, 2023.
A Texas Department of Family and Protective Services representative, who was part of a Texas Education Agency investigation, testified that when she became involved on April 13, 2023, she discovered the SROs had not interviewed Maxwell or searched/seized the teacher’s cell phone, and had not requested the students’ or Maxwell’s Snapchat records.
It was later discovered the teacher had deleted records from his Snapchat account.
The DFPS investigator reported what she learned to the superintendent, who called in the Cass County Sheriff’s Office.
The sheriff’s investigator testified that she discovered multiple other possible witnesses and victims who school officials had failed to look for or find.
State records show that Maxwell was not certified to teach. He is currently listed as “under investigation” in the Do Not Hire Registry of people not eligible to work in Texas public schools.
Dozens of Texas educators have been charged with sex crimes involving students and other children.
A recent study of TEA data by parent advocates found that the state’s current misconduct reporting system is failing to protect Texas students from predatory school employees.