How confident are Houstonians in Klein ISD?

HOUSTON – Klein ISD has dominated headlines this April, and not for good reasons.

Earlier this month, Kedira Grigsby, 42, a cosmetology teacher at Klein Cain High School was arrested under accusations that she recruited students -- believed to be teenage runaways -- and forced them into prostitution.

FIRST REPORT: Klein ISD cosmetology teacher arrested, charged with sex trafficking, compelling prostitution

A Klein ISD employee then exclusively spoke to KPRC 2 saying they blew the whistle on sex trafficking a year before her arrest. The district vehemently denies the allegations but it hasn’t stopped people from expressing their outrage.

Activists, for example, challenged the district for withholding the troubling information about Grigsby. Even Governor Greg Abbott took to social media to condemn Klein ISD.

“No child should be compelled by the state to be in a school like this,” he said on X, formerly known as Twitter. “And yet, current law doesn’t allow the choice to go elsewhere. I’m working to elect state representatives who will change that.”

It’s not just Grigsby’s case that was making the news. About a week after her arrest, Klein ISD came under fire again when a mother said more than an hour passed until she found out her 7-year-old special needs son wandered off campus.

“He was seen leaving at 10:25 a.m. [School leaders] called me at 11:52 and I didn’t know exactly where he was until a little after 12:30 p.m.,” Emily Castillo told KPRC 2′s Rilwan Balogun. “It’s so much unanswered, so much uncertainty that was going on and so it’s not like I could get a clear answer from my son either.”

RELATED STORIES:

• Whistleblower who helped expose Klein ISD teacher accused of sex trafficking minors hires civil rights attorney
• “The school district has a duty to ensure their school is safe, and it sounds like they fell short of that goal.”
• A timeline of the investigation of former Klein ISD teacher accused of sex-trafficking students