Now we know why the police were there - on the 13th, Grayson allegedly sent "inappropriate" text messages to a sixteen year old, one of his students.The alleged inculpatory texts certainly justify the warrant, and if that had been reported I'd not have questioned its issuance. But I still find the arrest for de minimis pot possession in such a situation to be bit like piling on. (They let him bond out, reported KXAN, so presumably nobody told the judge he was an immediate threat.) Any sex-crime charges he may end up facing would be much, much more serious than pot possession in a school zone.
And there's more. According to the "Proposed Suspension Without Pay of Term Contract Employee Pending Termination" for Grayson, the teacher "had been previously arrested on February 25, 2012, for driving while intoxicated and failed to timely disclose said arrest to AISD..."
Regardless of how you feel about the marijuana charge, we can all recognize this case isn't so much about bong-rips as a pattern of illegal activity, the worst of which, obviously, has nothing to do with a few sprinkles of pot.
To add a grim prequel to the current trials of Ian Grayson, a Grits commenter pointed out a heart wrenching story about Ian Grayson's family that I'll excerpt here in closing:
Ian Grayson is Rod Grayson's son...Ian was a baby when he lost his father, Rod...student (now attorney) John Daniel Christian fatally shot Rod Grayson in class in 1978...Ian grew up without a father and chose teaching as his vocation...an honorable decision...perhaps part of a family's legacy of being teachers...for whatever reason, a good man and a good teacher have been destroyed ...
This is the second time that Austin students have lost a talented and caring teacher named Mr. Grayson, although we can only hope this farcical time is not permanent. John Daniel Christian, then a Murchison student, now a lawyer, fatally shot his teacher Rod Grayson one May day in 1978. We (Texans) gave the lethal injection to David Powell for a murder committed on the same day, but most people have forgotten (or never knew about) Rod Grayson and his shooter. Very, very, sad. If you pray, pray for Ian Grayson.From all I can tell via our friends at Google, the story about Grayson's father checks out, and Michael Corcoran has much more, calling the murder "Austin's secret." Grayson's killer was "the son of George Christian, former White House press secretary under Lyndon Johnson, John Christian [who] is currently a tax lawyer in Austin." Reports Corcoran, "Recently suspended Austin High School geography teacher Ian Grayson was only a year old when his father was killed in that classroom."
What a terrible, multi-generational family (and AISD) tragedy; much bigger, and profoundly sadder, it seems, than just a small-time pot bust.
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10 comments:
They don't prosecute cops for sexting little kids here in Montgomery county: http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/east_montgomery/news/charges-dismissed-against-ex-spd-cop/article_b8b0fa71-442e-5277-ae81-b3177cd88cf0.html
Anon 2:28, each case has its own facts so one cop not being charged in one case has little to do with a different person in a different area that also has a tremendous amount of contact with children.
This whole story points out why waiting for the facts to come in makes more sense than jumping on the bandwagon of public opinion.
Another sad legacy of the LBJ influence.
i just find it AWFUL convienct for law enforcment to SUDDENLY find inappropriate txt msg's AFTER they are suddenly taking a lot of heat over the stupdity of there BIG POT Bust!
Sec. 481.121(a), Health & Safety Code, makes it an offense to possesses a usable quantity of marihuana. I haven't done dope in a long time. Is 0.033 ounces really a "usable quantity"?
I'd like to take this opportunity and remind everyone that more police officers are convicted of child sex crimes than all other professions combined. It's law enforcement's "dirty little secret", and one we are committed to exposing. Police officers use their positions of trust to violate our children. Their victims are threatened with physical harm and told no one will believe their word over that of a police officer. And often, police officers will threaten their victim's family with death in order to silence their victim.
Please visit our Facebook pages and learn why cops are so sexually attracted to little children and even infants, and sometimes even animals. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tribute-to-survivors-of-child-sexual-assault-by-law-enforcement-officers/180584842010594
Psychiatrists have acknowledged for decades that sex crimes aren't about sex at all but about power and control over others. And just who in our society desires power and control more than those who pursue careers in law enforcement?
And remember, almost 90% of convicted child sex offenders admit to wanting a career in law enforcement at one time or another...
Anonymous 4/26 11:08 PM--what has LBJ to do with this?
I think it much more appropriate to pray for his two little children. He is an adult, and he can learn/grow/change if he so chooses. His children, on the other hand? I'm afraid they may just be tossed about in foster care.
It is sad that when the public catches a whiff of a charge like this, the person accused is, essentially, already convicted. My mother and uncle are attorneys, and I have worked for them and some of their friends. I have heard and seen their fellow defense attorneys lament over several scotchs, the impossibility of a fair shot in these cases. Each time a case like this popped up and went to trial, it never went well. And some of the clients, I believe, were truly innocent, but frightened at the prospect of going to trial, staring down the barrel of 10 years in prison, and facing a jury with an undoubtedly irreversible bias before the facts are presented, which are few and far between in these cases. Hopefully, for Mr. Grayson, this case will never see the Grand Jury. He is a bright, committed teacher with awards(2009 NOVA award from the Texas Council of the Social Studies) and a personal interest in carrying forward the change that his father could have made. If we had more teachers like this at the helms of classrooms across the country, then maybe there would be hope; hope of dispensing with the stupidity that substitutes accusations and investigations for a "throw away the key" mentality, and ultimately ruins lives. We do not know the content of these text messages. That is a concrete fact. And the fact that we do not know the content of the text messages is the only thing we know. So I hope and pray, for Mr. Grayson's sake, that the populace will not convict him in the court of public opinion, armed with stupidity and ignorance, and will not ruin his life (again) by stoning him before he has a chance to prove his case. You are in my most ardent of prayers, Mr. Grayson.
the kids are with their mom. they're fine.
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