May 15, 2015 - A Shelbyville ISD teacher has been arrested by the Shelby County Sheriff's Department on charges of improper relationship between educator and student and sexual assault of a child.
Johanna Vickers, 35, of San Augustine was arrested Thursday, May 14, 2015 on the aforementioned charges at 8:10pm and released at 9:50pm on two $25,000 bonds. At this time a press release is pending from the Shelby County Sheriff's Department.
Shelby County Today visited with Dr. Ray West, Shelbyville ISD Superintendent, to gather information from the district on the situation. Dr. West issued the following statement:
"Johanna Vickers, a teacher with Shelbyville High School, resigned Wednesday May 13, 2015 from the school district. She is no longer an employee of the school district. At the time of her resignation Ms. Vickers noted she was resigning for personal reasons and did not admit any wrongdoing related to the investigation for possible behavior involving her and a Shelbyville High School student. The investigation into the possible inappropriate conduct was initiated as an internal school investigation led by Jud Matthews, Shelbyville ISD Police Chief; however, early in the process Shelbyville ISD brought local law enforcement in to oversee the investigation since the case included the possibility of criminal wrongdoing by a school district employee.
"Since this is still an open and ongoing investigation the school district cannot offer comments regarding specifics of the case; however, it's to be noted that at the time of Ms. Vickers resignation nothing had been uncovered as far as an actual criminal act. This is a very fluid situation and it seems like with each passing day and maybe even each passing hour more things are being uncovered. It's my understanding as of this morning that she was actually arrested and charged. It's extremely troubling anytime something like this happens and it's something that disappoints all of us.
"We've got to remember that we have to allow enforcement officials to uncover facts for the investigation and not confuse things with rumors and speculation and allow the fact finding process to occur. Whenever any employee is accused of violating the trust that's given to educators that's a sad day for all of us. It doesn't change the fact that we must stay unyielding to our commitment to our students in providing a safe educational environment. Also, it doesn't take away from the fact that we stay committed to continuing the trust with our parents and stakeholders. Shelbyville ISD is a great place to be and will continue to be that and we will continue to cooperate with law enforcement and other enforcement officials from the state who will likely become involved with this because it is an educator who earned their certificate.
"From my seat we will do whatever we can to make sure that if something's been violated then that person is going to have to face the consequences at the state level."
In addition to his statement, Dr. West spoke further of the rapidly changing situation involving the investigation, "A lot of times these investigations drag on, this has been extremely rapid in terms of how investigations unfold. I haven't really been involved in a lot of investigations but [they do take some time] to the point of frustration with everybody that wants to know what's going on. In this case this has really moved. There's families involved, there's children involved and nobody wins when something like this happens and we've just gotta keep doing our best to try to safeguard against it happening in the future and trying to make that for everybody else that we help them get through it and we move forward, but it's a disappointing day it really is."
