"Bad Teachers" Episode Four: Alexandria Vega & Reagan Gray

0:12 Hey everyone, and welcome back to Exposed Scandalous Files of the Elite. I'm your host, Jim Chapman, and we are back with this fourth installment in our Bad Teacher series. And today we're going to start out in Texas, specifically Alden, Texas, and I promise you won't believe your ears when I'm done telling you this one. Also have a teacher out of Arkansas I'm gonna be telling you about today. But we're going to start out in Texas and Alexandria Vera. So let me give you a little bit of history about Alexandria. She was an eighth grade English teacher at Thomas J. Stovall Middle School, which is part of the Aldan Independent School District, and according to students, she was known as the cool teacher. She do things like let students use cell phones while in class and they thought she was pretty awesome. And even though she was only twenty four, she had already divorced her husband and according to her ex's step grandfather, it was due to him acting immature. Now. That same step grandfather of her ex husband also noted he knew Alexandria to be hard working.

1:27 She was a good mother who put herself through college. Now physically she's gorgeous, honestly, and I'll put some pictures on the Patreon. But a truly beautiful woman, and with what you're about to find out, a very twisted mind. She was also the mother to a six year old daughter from a prior relationship, and life was moving along for Alexandria on May twenty seventh of twenty sixteen, when an affidavit of probable cause was filed in the Harris County District Courts in regards to an ongoing investigation into Alexandria Vera and a thirteen year old student, which lasted even through the time he turned fourteen. Now, I'm going to go over what was alleged in that affidavit filed by Officer Jay Gonzalez. So, according to Vera, Vera met the student and we're going to refer to the student as JT during a summer school session, and Vera said that JT was initially rude to her, but he later began asking for her Instagram name. Vera said she denied giving JT her Instagram information. So after summer school ended, JT found Vera on Instagram and he requested to follow her. Initially, she rejected that, and Vera noticed that at the beginning of the school year, JT was actually assigned to her

2:57 eighth grade English class. She stated that JT would flirt with her and he would say inappropriate things to her, and she claimed that she would tell him to stop, but he would continue to flirt with her. Then, in September of twenty fifteen, Vera netics that JT was not in class and she became worried about him. She said, so, she said she slid into his DMS for lack of a better word on Instagram to check on him and reminded him of an assignment that was due. JT replied, and this led him to ask Vera for her phone number. The student asked Vera if they could hang out outside of school, and she agreed. Vera drove to his house and picked him up. They drove around for a little while, and she said they kissed in the car. Now, this is a twenty four year old woman and a thirteen year old boy at this time. Vera then drove to JT's house again the filling day because his parents weren't home.

4:02 Vera told investigators this was the first time that she and JT had sex. This was in September of twenty fifteen, So the two began having sex on a daily basis, mostly at her home. So on October eighth of twenty fifteen, Vera met JT's parents at an open house at school. After the open house, Vera actually went to JT's home, and JT would refer to her in front of his parents as his girlfriend. Vera told investigators that the parents not only knew about the relationship, but they also approved of it. Can you believe that Vera was invited to attend family gatherings? The parents allowed JT to stay every night with Vera at her home. In the mornings, vere would drop the boy off at his house on her way to work so that he could catch the bust school and not raise red flags. Right teacher, pulling up with a thirteen year old kid every day might raise an eyebrow somewhere. Vera said the relationship with the student grew and they continued to have sex and spend time together.

5:17 Vera also told investigators that she and the boy get this love each other. Twenty four year old woman Vera claimed that she got pregnant with JT's baby in January of twenty sixteen, and Vera told investigators that the boy's family was told about the pregnancy and they were quote very supportive and excited about the baby. Vera terminated the pregnancy in February of twenty sixteen. However, after getting nervous when CPS Child Protective Services showed up at school to question her and the student about the relationship, Vera of course denied the relationship to c PS. Now, how did Vera even get on the radar with police regarding the teacher student relationship. Well, Alexandria and Vera admitted to the relationship when she was confronted by the school principal, Elsa Wright, and Vera told that principle that the boy's parents, Hey, they accepted her as his girlfriend, and I'm just like she was not doing anything wrong. Of course, Miss Wright had heard gossip going around the school. All these kids are going to talk, and that's what caused her to confront and ask Vera about that relationship. The principal then got with the SRO, the school Resource officer, and they began to investigate that relationship between Vera and JT. So

6:52 what happened at that point, Well, an Aldan Independent School District peace officer, he gets assigned to investigate this and proper relationship, and that officer was provided Vera's cell phone and she consented to a digital search of her phone. Now that phone was forensically analyzed in many messages between Vera and JT were found, which was consistent with what Vera had told that principle. So the local school district they then issue a statement saying Aldan School has been made aware of the charges that have been filed against a former Stoveall Middle School teacher. And they say former because when they started investigating her, of course they put her on leave and then fired her. But I'll move on involved in an inappropriate relationship with a male student.

7:45 When the allegation was made in April of twenty sixteen, the teacher was immediately removed from the school and placed on administrative leave. The safety and security of Aldean's students and staff remain a priority of the school district, so Assistant District Attorney Tiffany Dupri with the Child Abuse Division, she was quoted as saying, as parents, we entrust teachers with a very important role to educate students, and we should not be concerned about teachers getting into a sexual relationship with our children while they were at school. Dupre also added that the child's parents could face criminal charges. Failure to report child abuse is a possibility, she said, so a forensic interview was conducted where Vera was able to identify parts of JT's body. JT's forensic interviews were consistent with the story that Vera had told investigators, And of course police they interview neighbors, right they start going to houses, knocking on doors, and they start asking these neighbors if they noticed anything. And according to neighbors, Vera sometimes had as many as five teenage boys over at a time. One neighbor told investigator she was having a lot of kids in her home. There was drinking in the front. We always found beer bottles and beer cans on her side of the lawn. In half of the teens did not look older than high school maybe. Another neighbor,

9:15 who wanted to remain anonymous, said that kids were always over to Vera's house and she always told neighbors that it was her brother and his friends. So when this came out, that step grandfather that I mentioned to Vera's ex husband in the beginning. He told reporters, I've got to admit it was very shocking. This was not the Alex that we know, so she was good at hiding her indiscretions. He went on to say, Alex today says she doesn't know what she did wrong. He said that Vera feels she did nothing wrong because she just fell in love. Talk about an idiot, and of course other parents they had reactions as this came out. Parent of another student in Stovall Middle School told reporters it's horrible for any father or any family member going through this situation.

10:09 When you send your child to school, you think everything will be safe for them, but I think this is something that is serious and needs to be investigated. Another parent said everybody needs to get involved and they need to do something because these children are our children. It's messing up our children's mind. And even another said I have chills because of this, just to think a teacher would even do this. Now, an unnamed student who was asked if he ever noticed anything in class, mentioned that he grabbed her butt and everybody saw it and then everybody started talking about it. Obviously, police have a ton of information, including the confession of the teacher herself Alexandria Vera, so they issue an arrest warrant for her. Police go to her house and they take her into custody. This was on May thirtieth of twenty sixteen. A man answered the door and he told police that neither Vera nor her six year old daughter were at the house at that time. The man said she left and he had no idea where she went. This was on May thirtieth.

11:23 Then on June one, of twenty sixteen, Alexandria Vera turns herself into police in Conrod, Texas. She was charged with continuous sexual abuse of a child, which carries a minimum sentence of twenty five years in prison under Texas law. In prosecutors they told the media that the legislature had recently passed a continuous sex assault of a child charge if a defendant has sexual intercourse with a child under the age of fourteen two times or more over a thirty day period, and in hands is the punishment from twenty five to life without the possibility of parole. So her bail gets set at one hundred thousand dollars and she was released just hours after her arrest. So upon her release, reporters of course are everywhere waiting for her to get out of jail for her statement, and all she said was I have a lawyer, I have legal representation, and I can't say anything. So what about the boy?

12:30 If it was true that his parents approved of this, you don't want to leave them with the parents? Right, Well, police, they're thinking the same thing. And that fourteen year old boy was removed from his parents care by CPS and he was placed in foster care. And JT's parents, although they had not been charged in the case, they were ordered to undergo therapy and attend parenting classes. The parents did retain custody of their three other children. Now, let's talk about what Alexandria was doing while she was out on bond. She had a lot of conditions involved in that bond, and there were eight main conditions to her bond. One, she was not to communicate directly or indirectly in any manner with the student, except through lawyers or the court.

13:20 Her second condition, VERA was not to threaten or harass the student. Her third condition, VERA was not to visit the student's residence or be within two hundred feet of the residence. Her fourth condition, she was to have no contact with children under the age of seventeen, with the exception of relatives meaning her young daughter and her underage brother. Her fifth condition, Vera was not allowed to go near any school ground's period within two hundred feet. She had curfew conditions which said she had to be home from eight pm to seven am every night, and she was not allowed to use the internet at home, but was allowed to use it at her job. She reportedly had a new job, but it was unclear what that job was, and of course she had to wear a GPS tracker at all times. And if she were to break any of these terms, her bond would be revoked and she would go back to jail. But that didn't scare Alexandria because she was back in court on Wednesday, August third of twenty sixteen for violating the curfew condition of her bond.

14:32 Documents showed that she was doue at home at eight pm on July twenty six and she was forty six minutes late returning home, and that GPS device that she was required to where it placed her at a shopping center. But the judge he denies the prosecution's request to revoke her bond, although he did tell her, hey, this is going to be your last chance. And the prosecution said it was especially upset because in the past she violated another condition, which was to stay away from schools, especially the school she worked at. And get this, according to the prosecution, soon after she made bond, she goes to the school that she was already suspended from and eventually fired from for sleeping with that student and getting pregnant by the student for that matter, and she goes to the track and decides she wants to go for a little run around the track in her little skinny shorts and a little crop top. And the prosecution they didn't like that too much, so they discussed it with the judge, but they failed to take legal action at that time.

15:46 And there was another violation that she had when she bought a new cell phone, she set up a new plan and she wasn't supposed to do that. Seems like she was trying to circumvent some rules, maybe to get in touch with that kid allegedly. So on November sixteenth of twenty sixteen, Alexandria Vera finally appears in court in Harris County, and many people testified. One in particular was a doctor by the name of Karen Lawson. She was a clinical psychologist who specialized in sex offender treatment, and during her testimony, Lawson explained that Vera came from a somewhat tumultuous background where she witnessed some domestic abuse, and the doctor also said that Vera was taken advantage of by men she dated, but she classified Vera as accomplished, a person who had held a job since the age of fourteen and bought her first home at twenty one, put herself through college, cared for her little brother, and was the full time caregiver to her six year old daughter.

16:54 The doctor went on to say she did not classify Vera as a traditional pedophile, believes she was truly in love with the student. So the prosecution they get up and they have their chance to talk to doctor Lawson, and other details emerged. Pornographic pictures of the victim and Vera were found on Vera's cell phone. She was actually taking pictures of them having sex. She also allowed other students to have sex in her home. Lawson's testimony under cross examination also revealed that Vera and the victim's father pretended they were in a relationship with each other to try to cover up the student teacher relationship. How about that fucking bomb.

17:43 The father of the student, let me say that again, decided he was going to pretend like he was the boyfriend to Vera in order to trick people into believing that that's why. She was at the house all the time. He's just as guilty she is. Miles. The victim's mother was in court to show Vera's support, as well as other students and their parents. You can't make that shit up. And I'm telling you when I post these pictures on Patreon, you're not gonna believe it. This is a beautiful girl. So what happened. Let's get to the verdict. Verea was originally charged, if you'll remember, with continuous sexual assault of a child, but pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of aggravated sexual assault of a child, which doesn't carry that twenty five to life sentence that the continuous sexual assault would, so prosecutors agreed to a maximum term of thirty years.

18:46 In defense, attorney Ricardo Rodriguez, planning to ask the judge for probation so Vera gets released on bail until her sentencing in January of twenty six and she was also eligible for what's none a's deferred adjudication, in which the case will be placed on probation and will have no felony on her record if she successfully completed the terms she was eligible for. That didn't mean that that was what was going to occur, but that's what she was eligible for. So on Friday, January thirteenth of twenty seventeen, Vera is sentenced to ten years in prison, So that makes her eligible for parole in just five years of twenty seventeen. Now. The judge in that case, Judge mc spadden, he told Vera this case will serve as an example to deder other teachers from crossing inappropriate lines. He went on to say, we want our teachers to educate our children, keep their hands off our children, and prepare them for the future. And believe it or not, ten years is on the higher end of other cases seen in Texas.

20:01 Former chief of staff at the US Department of Education, Terry Abbott said, it's a very strong sentence. It's a very good first step. A teacher who is convicted of sexually assaulting a student in one county can get probation, while another jurisdiction they get five or six years. Abbot said that's because Texas has no minimum sentence. Texas has more than twice as many cases of assault of children by teachers than any other state. Believe it or not, now, alexand Andrea as I said, she was eligible for parole on January twelfth of twenty twenty two, but she was denied and remained in custody. She's now thirty three years old, and she's being held at what's known as the Coleman Work Facility in Lockhart, Texas. In her projected release date is just two years from now January twelfth of twenty twenty seven, and I kind of talked a little bit about Texas and their light sentences. And in twenty fourteen, Felicia Smith, another teacher at Stoveall Middle School, she faced criminal chargers for giving a sexually suggestive whip dance to a student in a classroom as a gift for his fifteenth birthday. How nice of her. She was actually sentenced to three years probation. Another teacher in Texas, a guy by the name of Jeffrey Gooseman was sentenced to ten

21:33 years in prison for an inappropriate relationship with a student, and we may do an individual case on that. In a separate case, a former Spring teacher by the name of Jessica Lynn Kelly, she got two years behind boards. You can see how light these sentences are. An attorney by the name of Paul Morgan said, historically speaking females seemed to get lenient treatment, and I would agree with that. Morgan said, their cases seemed to be less I'm in the male teachers, but the judge wanted to send a message in Vere's case, and just a couple of stats. Former US Department of Education Chief of Staff Terry Abbott, who is now of the Houston public relations firm Drive West Communication. He cited researching twenty fourteen showing Alabama with the highest per capita rate of teacher student issues, but Texas with one hundred and sixteen accusations and convictions, certainly leads the United States in such cases. And to put that in perspective, Pennsylvania comes in second with forty five, so double that, and it's surprising to know Pennsylvania comes in second to me. So that is the case of Alexandria Vera, and we're going to move on to another one.

22:50 And it's important to mention that this case out of Arkansas is not adjudicated yet. As a matter of fact, it's a very high profile case occurring right now in Arkansas, specifically Little Rock and a former teacher by the name of Reagan Gray. Now, at the time of this alleged incident, Reagan was twenty three, but currently today she's twenty six, and we'll talk about how she went three years with this escapade that we're going to get into. And she's another beautiful teacher, blond hair fit and this girl in particular really has like a very sweet look to her, almost a pure luck And I'll post these pics for you on the Patreon. So was shocking when this seemingly all American girl was arrested on April twenty fourth of twenty twenty four. And it's important to not again that this case has not been adjudicated. So everything I'm about to cover is allegations at this point, but let's get into it. So, originally Reagan was from Mona, Soello, Arkansas, and she was employed as a teacher at Little Rock Christian Academy. This is where she was employed during the time of the allegations. Now, Reagan was not working at the school after September of twenty twenty three, and Reagan was also employed at Sylvan Hills Middle School. This was

24:23 beginning in October of twenty twenty three, So she left Little Rock Christian Academy. She moves over to Sylvan Hills Middle School the next month, and she was the music teacher there. And Reagan also volunteered in the student ministry at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock, Arkansas as a youth group leader and member of the music program. Now, that is a very prominent church with a very wealthy congregation in Little Rock. As a matter of fact, Bill Clinton prebviously worshiped there. It's one of the largest and best known Baptist churches in the entire state of Arkansas.

25:09 So let me tell you about the crime. Now, according to the affidavit, around September eighth of twenty twenty three, FBI Special Agent Joshua Pullman was notified of an incident regarding Reagan having sexual relations with a minor. And we're going to refer to him as V one. This was way back in twenty twenty. Okay, so this affidavit is in twenty twenty three, September eighth, but the incident happened in twenty twenty. Let me explain. V one was a fifteen year old mail in twenty twenty when the assault began. He did not attend Little Rock Christian Academy, but was a member of the student ministry at Emmanuel Baptist Church, and Reagan approached V one the church. V one was not aware that Reagan was a middle school teacher at Little Rock Christian Academy. He didn't know what she did outside of teaching church, so I wanted to set that up To tell you this, In twenty twenty, V one's parents they discover text messages between him and Reagan on V one's cell phone. The parents of V one, they tell Reagan to stop messaging their child. Now, how Reagan got V one's phone number was through a group chat through the church's music program. So the parents they then report all of this to Stephen Smith, who is the senior pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church. And Smith he then

26:44 goes to Reagan and he confronts her about the text messages and she tells him the relationship was not physical. They've never done anything right other than sending each other text messages. So Stephen Smith, the senior pastor, he then moves Reagan from the student ministry and he, meaning the pastor, says you need counseling, and we're gonna give you church counseling. So she gets that church counseling, and then she is then returned back to the student Ministry shortly after being removed, which obviously gives her access to minors yet again. She also gets assigned what's known through that church as an accountability partner, and this happened to be Ashley Smith who was Steven Smith's wife, and Ashley Smith was part of the Healing Well team is what they called it, organized by that church. So what was she sending to v one?

27:45 This is very important these quote unquote it was nothing physical text from hers well. She's accused of sending new pictures, including photos of her chest, buttocks, a vaginal area daily. She requested new pictures in return from the student Reagan and v One continued communicating on Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok despite being confronted by v One's parents, even when the parents confronted her on this, she continued, that blows my mind. According to the affidavit, v One stated in a child and Adolescent forensic interview conducted by the FBI that he and Reagan did not have penile vaginal intercourse, but that Reagan would verbally request vaginal intercourse from him. V One also stated that he did engage in sexual contact with Reagan during the fall of twenty twenty and into the summer of twenty twenty one. He stated that Reagan's vehicle and her apartment were where those interactions took place. He said, v One would digitally penetrate Reagan's vagina, and Reagan would perform oral on him, and you may wonder what's digitally penetrate He would finger her. V One said that he engaged in sexual activity with Reagan approximately five to ten times when he was fifteen and multiple times when he was sixteen. So all of that occurred and people knew

29:18 about it. His own parents knew something was going on in twenty twenty, although apparently they assumed he stopped, but none of this was reported to the Little Rock Police Department until January twentieth of twenty twenty four. And it was only reported after a newspaper exposed a story of Emmanual Baptist Church covering up not only this incident, but multiple incidents of abusers. Say little Rock Police, they contact DHS about the allegations. So I'm gonna tell you a little bit about the investigation now. Stephen Smith. He was in reviewed in February of twenty twenty four, and he stated that in the fall of twenty twenty three, Reagan disclosed during a counseling session the relationship between her and v One was sexual. Smith defended Reagan's actions and, according to reports, said that nothing was illegal about her grooming and predatory sexual behavior. He attempted to justify her behavior by saying the fifteen year old boy had a driver's license and it was consensual. Smith then went on to blame the assaults on Satan in the corrupt world, and in February of twenty twenty four, Smith blamed the church as many claims of abuse and media coverage on Satan, saying we command you, by the power in the blood of Jesus to leave us alone. Now under Arkansas law, Smith is what's known as a mandated reporter if he

30:52 hears of anything, he has to report it right. He claimed he contact DHS about Reagan, although so no one can find any evidence that he did that. Smith claimed that DHS told him that since the child was sixteen at the time of his report and was in a consensual relationship with Reagan, who was not in a supervisory role, it would probably not be investigated. Smith also claimed he spoke with the church legal counsel for personnel matters and they told him that age was an important factor in whether it was a mandated reporting incident. The council did not feel v one's age warranted the incident to be reported. Now, according to Arkansas law, all sexual assaults of minors under eighteen must be reported by mandatory reporters. As of May of twenty twenty four, Stephen Smith no longer worked as the head pastor at Emmanuel Baptist Church. He resigned as a head pastor after controversy about how the church handled sex abuse allegations. So what else happened well Reagan? She eventually turns herself in. She was arrested on April seventeenth of twenty twenty four, and she gets charged with a single count of first degree sexual assault. Reagan seemed to fully understand that she was involved in this sexual relationship with a minor, and she didn't seem too much care.

32:19 Criminal defense attorney Joanna Sproull May mention in an interview with Long Crime that the prosecutor seemed to be taking lightly cases of older female perpetrators violating minor male victims as opposed to an older male perpetrator violating a minor female victim. And we just talked about that in the prior case, and I agree. So Reagan she gets a twenty thousand dollars bond. She was able to secure that bond and is out of custody while awaiting trial now. At an arrangment hearing scheduled for September nineteenth of twenty four Reagan entered a not guilty plea, which you would expect, and a jury trial is scheduled to take place on February eleventh of twenty twenty five, and I will bring you the details of that as it develops. Got a lot of pictures here that I'm going to be posting to the Patreon so you can see exactly who I'm talking about, as well as some pretty interesting other files from this case. So there you have it. We got to get a handle on this teacher student relationship stuff,

33:53 and that's why it's so important you share this podcast if you're getting something out of it. Knowledge is power. The more of the light we shine on this shit, the more likely we can put a stop to it. It's just that simple. And shout out to Rachel Spiller's Research who helped me research this case. Rachel Spillers does an amazing job for me. Thank you so much, and to everyone else. Look check out the Patreon If you're not currently a member, go to patreon dot com slash Exposed podcast Files. If you'd like to get more episodes, bonus episodes, commercial free early releases, and all kinds of other benefits, go check it out. We'd love to have you as one of our celebrity and until next time for Exposed scandalous files of the Elite, I'm your host, Jim Chapman. Much love,