HOUSTON – Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced criminal charges Monday against five people accused of participating in a teacher-certification cheating scheme that allowed unqualified teachers to work in local school districts.
Ogg was joined by Michael Levine, Felony Chief of the Harris County District Attorney’s Office Public Corruption Division, for the news conference.
The alleged scheme, reportedly worth over a million dollars, involved falsifying credentials to secure teaching positions for individuals who did not meet certification requirements, according to the DA’s office.
Levine estimated that the ring’s kingpin had grossed more than $1 million from the scheme.
Court documents show an estimated 430 tests were taken fraudulently and more than 210 unqualified teachers were certified in this scheme, who are now practicing or practiced at Texas public schools and in districts across the state.
The scandal is believed to have impacted multiple school districts in the area, leading to heightened concerns about educational standards and public safety.
Ogg said two of those unqualified teachers were identified as “sexual assault predators,” who were employed on school campuses. One has been charged with indecency with a child and another with online solicitation.
On Tuesday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced indictments against each of the five defendants.
Suspects identified
The following suspects charged in the scheme have been identified:
- Vincent Grayson, 57, the head boys basketball coach at Booker T. Washington High School in Houston ISD for nearly 20 years. Grayson was charged as the organizer of the cheating scheme. Grayson’s bond has been lowered to $150,000.
- Tywana Gilford Mason, 51, the former director/VA certifying official at the Houston Training and Education Center. Mason’s role as test proctor allowed her to keep the proxy scheme undetected.
- Nicholas Newton, 35, an assistant principal at Booker T. Washington High School in Houston ISD. Newton is alleged to have participated in the scheme as the proxy test-taker.
- Darian Nikole Wilhite, 22, a proctor at TACTIX who is alleged to have taken bribes to allow Newton to act as a testing proxy.
- LaShonda Roberts, 39, an assistant principal at Yates High School in Houston ISD. Roberts is charged with recruiting nearly 100 teachers to participate in the cheating scheme. Roberts’ bond has been lowered to $50,000.
All five defendants are charged with two counts of engaging in organized criminal activity.
“This scheme goes back as far as our investigation can take it to May 2020, which, as you recall, was right at the beginning of the world shut down for the COVID pandemic,” Ogg said. “The extent of this scheme will never be fully known, but we know that at least 400 tests were taken and at least 200 teachers falsely certified. We know that the codefendants collectively profited in the amount of at least $1 million.”
She said the investigation began after a Good Samaritan with a conscience that brought the scheme to light. The Good Samaritan who came forward was a former coach applying as a police officer in a different part of Texas.
How the scheme worked
Levine said candidates would pay Grayson usually $2,500. He then would forward roughly 20% of that money to Gilford Mason for her willingness to allow the cheating to occur.
The candidate would then reportedly be instructed by Grayson, on where and when exactly to test. They would come, show ID, sign in and leave, Levine stated.
A few minutes later, Nicholas Newton, the proxy tester, would reportedly sit in their seat, take and pass the test that they felt they could not.
On occasion, Newton would allegedly take more than one test. In fact, Levine said he was caught red handed in February of 2024, where he was logged in to one test. He said to investigators, “Look at the screen behind you,” and he was logged in as a different person, taking another test on another terminal that same day.
Levine described Grayson as the kingpin of the scheme, stating that he’s made $1,090,000 from this scheme.
“Greed knew no boundaries in this case,” Ogg said. “If you’ve got an assistant principal, a head coach and others posing as certified teachers, we just aren’t going to be able to calculate the damage there. But we know that further investigation is needed and we look forward to the teacher taking the responsible and necessary approach to getting these teachers out of our schools and away from kids.”