Failing The Kids
Bullying, retaliation and alleged sexual misconduct. It’s sadly just another day in our schools. But the complaints are reaching a fever pitch in this small town in East Texas. They are accused of FAILING THE KIDS.
It’s one of the very smallest school districts in the entire state of Texas. 400 students, a teacher student ratio of 12 to 1. You’d think that would make it much easier to protect the kids in Colmesneil ISD, but they aren’t being protected. And that’s why our investigators have shown up in East Texas.
“I want to know, what are you going to do to protect your student?” Andrea Palacio said.
“I’m not planning on commenting anything you ask me, so you might as well stop asking,” Sharon Tule said.
We are about 120 miles northeast of Houston in Tyler County and the stories emerging from this little town are clearly disturbing.
“There was one of the times he had provided me alcohol, and he made me sit on his lap,” Grace Fowler said. “He would force me to drink it or drink the alcohol, and he’d call me names.”
15-year-old Grace Fowler is finally talking openly and her claims against this guy are disturbing.
His name is Rodney Lott. He taught at the town’s only high school.
Last New Year’s Eve, Grace says she got these text messages.
“He was like, I just need you. I need someone. I’m all alone,” Grace Fowler said.
Then a phone call.
“He had told me that, how much he loved me and miss me. And wish me and Madeline never, like, stop being friends. And, that the age gap didn’t matter. And he’s a 57-year-old man. Shouldn’t be talking to me like that,” Grace Fowler said.
That’s when Grace knew she couldn’t stay quiet about Mr. Lott anymore. She went straight to her mom.
“I was shocked. I just started talking to him over the phone,” Linzee Fowler said.
“Are you drinking alcohol?” says Linzee Fowler.
“Oh no ma’am. Not that I know of,”says Rodney Lott.
“You’re a grown man Mr. Lott. You shouldn’t be talking to my daughter the way you did,” Linzee Fowler said. “I’m going to go to the police department and file a report on this.”
Rodney Lott resigned the following day.
His wife Cathy Lott, who is also a teacher at Colmesneil ISD, resigned for a short while and then came back.
“We want to talk to Mr. Lott about his inappropriate relationships with students. Will he talk to us, please?” Andrea Palacio said.
“He’s not here,” says Cathy Lott.
“What about you? Will you talk to us? You’re a teacher there too,” Andrea Palacio said.
“Nothing ever came of that,” Cathy Lott said.
“Well, didn’t he quit?” says Andrea Palacio.
“I’m not talking to you about it. Thank you,” Cathy Lott said.
Rodney Lott is no longer a teacher there, but his constant presence at school events prompted Grace Fowler to face the school board for their inaction.
“Three months have gone by, and I’m still scared to even go to sports events and to play to my full ability,” Grace Fowler said.
Here’s a picture of Grace on the pitcher’s mound with Lott sitting right there watching her. Imagine how she felt.
“I can’t get over it no matter how hard I try,” Grace Fowler said.
The school board president Eric Lee didn’t want to talk about student safety. He wanted us to go away.
“The open meeting is over so y’all can shut the camera down and politely leave,” Eric Lee said.
2 days later, Grace’s story made headlines in the local paper. The day after the district released a statement saying it had reported Lott to the Texas education agency’s do not hire list. Lott’s case shows to be “under investigation.”
The list is public on the state website. But the school district said it couldn’t stop Lott from going to school events.
“I was very distraught, so I went to the police station, filed a report, and I went to the D.A. about getting a protective order. And, as of right now, nothing has been done,” Linzee Fowler said.
Lott’s wife may not know this, but something did come of it. Tyler County, where Grace lives, says he is the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation.
Angelina County, where the Lott’s live, claims it has no documents about an investigation of Lott. Past or present. Despite allegations of giving students liquor.
And since Grace complained, we’ve learned other girls at the school have made similar complaints against Mr. Lott.
“We have done the best job at making sure our students are safe,” Sharon Tule said.
Sharon Tule has been superintendent here for over a year.
Emails show teachers believe Tule retaliates against them for reporting bullying at the school. As they are supposed to. Bullying that can be documented from some of the student chats we’ve seen.
“One screenshot and we’ll ruin your whole life.”
“Jail is temporary. Go beat the tf outta them.”
Some of the bullying involves what we are told is sexually explicit video.
“I need everybody to delete everything I’ve told you… I’m getting grounded.”
“She said that all of us were making fun of her and showing everyone a video of her kissing —-‘s wiener.”
“People think you sweep bullying right under the carpet, and you have favorites students that don’t get punished for the bullying. Is that true?” Andrea Palacio said.
“I’m not planning on commenting on anything you ask me, so you might as well stop asking,” Sharon Tule said.
Parents want change, but many are pulling their kids out of the district. Because if you try to make changes at any level, like a lot of small towns, you become a target.
“They fired Krysta because she was campaigning for her husband outside of school hours, on her own time, with her own money, and he was running for the school board,” Maureen Farrell said.
Maureen Farrell represents Krysta Connolly, a former paraprofessional suing the school district in federal court for violations of the First Amendment.
Krysta hired another school district employee to make a political sign for. Turns out, that employee did it on school time. How is that Krysta’s fault?
“And then the next day I got called over to the superintendent’s office and fired because she painted it on her conference period,” Krysta Connolly said.
“She didn’t get fired, though,” Wayne Dolcefino said.
“No, she still works there,” says Krysta Connolly.
Maybe Krysta was the one that got fired because her husband Roger was running in the school board election last year. His opponent was the school board president’s mother, Donna Lee.
“I think they did this because they want their people that will manipulate and lie and be a part of their corruption on their school board, they knew that me and Roger would never stand for that,” Krysta Connolly said.
Eric and his mom now sit on the school board together. Donna Lee won by just 7 votes.
There’s also folks claim, a family relationship between board members Kelly Eddins and Bo Bendy. If that’s true, that could mean 4 of the 6 people on the board are some kind of kinfolk.
“It’s very much populated with people that’s been on there for a very long time,” Jacob Adaway said.
Jacob Adaway resigned from his position on the school board last year. He says it’s a tight voting block with all these kinfolks that simply don’t take kindly to new ideas.
“You’re one vote, and it takes a team of votes to make any change,” Jacob Adaway says. “It’s almost like a buddy system. Not always the best impact for the child.”
“I love those dang kids. All I want to do is teach the kids,” Amanda Clowers said.
Amanda Clowers is another former teacher here. She quit only a couple weeks ago, saying she was bullied by superintendent Tule.
Amanda says she was written up for some petty infractions and denied appropriate grievance procedures to complain. She had also reported student bullying, and info on Mr. Lott providing booze to the kids.
“She told me that she would look into it, and I never heard anything else. But that’s happened with a lot of things,” Amanda Clowers said.
Krysta says speaking up in this East Texas town always seems to put a target on your back.
“They are being pushed out because they again, don’t stand for their lies. And they’ve reported too many things like even adults sleeping with children. They’ve reported the transcript thing. Kids not taking the right classes,” Krysta Connolly said.
School transcripts are yet another ugly issue. Seniors have had problems meeting deadlines for scholarships and college applications because of alleged mishandling of the documents by the school counselor.
“I just had kids tell me I’m still waiting on my transcripts. I need my information. I was ranked number one, and now I’m number nine. How did that happen?” Amanda Clowers said.
But we are now involved. The lid is no longer on.
“Because of their lack of morals that they showed me, didn’t trust them with my children, so I pulled them out,” Cierra Talmage said.
Cierra Talmage has gotten so concerned, she records school board meetings on her cell phone. Because she says it’s time the parents get involved.
“I’ve felt the need to go up here and just show the people that couldn’t be here what was happening,” Cierra Talmage said.
She wears a T-shirt made for Roger Connolly’s school board campaign. A not-so-subtle reminder that Krysta’s lawsuit, well, it’s got allies here.
“I’ve just learned of so much corruption and just really a lot of adults failing the children,” Krysta Connolly said. “So, I think they just knew that we would catch on to all their lies.”
Most folks aren’t rich here. Maybe the school board needs a refresher course on who is paying the bills.
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