Another Texas school employee has been arrested for charges of sexual crimes involving children.
Billy Joe Boyce, a 63-year-old former coach at Vernon Independent School District, was arrested last week for multiple sexual crimes allegedly committed against minors. Each of Boyce’s purported victims was under the age of 17.
Boyce originally received his Texas Educator Certificate in July of 1999. It is currently listed as “active,” according to records from the Texas State Board for Educator Certification.
While it is unclear how long Boyce worked for Vernon ISD, district officials said that his employment ended on June 3, 2021, according to KFDX-TV.
The six charges brought against Boyce include three second-degree felonies for indecent contact with a child, a second-degree charge for sexual performance by a child, and two third-degree felony charges for indecent exposure, according to Wilbarger County Jail records.
Boyce is currently held in Wilbarger County Jail on bonds totaling $650,000, stemming from two separate indictments.
The first indictment filed against Boyce on July 10 includes two charges of indecency with a child that were said to have occurred in September 2020. Each charge carried a bond of $150,000.
Filed that same day, the second indictment announces four more charges stemming from incidents occurring in May of this year. A bond of $87,500 was set for each charge.
These crimes allegedly involved two different underaged female victims.
Boyce is accused of touching the breasts and genitalia of one victim in the 2020 case, according to Texas Scorecard.
In the 2023 charges, it is alleged that after persuading the victim to expose herself, he exposed himself to her and forced her to touch him.
It is currently unclear if either of Boyce’s alleged victims were students at Vernon ISD.
Boyce is not the only Texas school employee to be arrested recently for crimes involving indecency with children.
On June 14, Kendal Augustus, a former police officer and school resource officer at Frisco ISD, was arrested for felony charges relating to an inappropriate relationship he allegedly had with a 14-year-old student, as previously reported by The Dallas Express. The charges included the sexual assault of a child, indecency with a child, and sexual performance by a child.
As recently covered in The Dallas Express, Texas law apparently does not require public school systems to notify district parents when allegations of abuse have been made against a school employee.