A Houston-area high school teacher is accused of helping her adult son by recruiting female students for prostitution, police say.
Kedria Grigsby, 42, and her son Roger Magee, 22, are charged with felony sex trafficking and compelling prostitution, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday in a Facebook post.
Grigsby also is charged with three counts of child trafficking and three counts of compelling prostitution of juveniles, according to the sheriff’s office.
The sheriff’s office believes Grigsby helped Magee, who was arrested in November 2022 and later charged with the alleged sexual assault of an underage teenage girl and sex trafficking, Harris County court records show. Magee, who has pleaded not guilty in that case and is awaiting trial, is currently in the Harris County Jail, according to the Facebook post.
USA TODAY contacted Grigsby’s and Magee’s lawyers on Friday but have not received a response.
More details about the allegations against Kedria Grigsby
The sheriff’s office said that Grigsby helped her son by recruiting “troubled juveniles from local high schools by offering them a place to stay, which would be a hotel.”
Three girls, ages 15, 16 and 17, attended the high school Grigsby taught at in the Klein Independent School District in the northern Houston suburb of Klein, according to the sheriff’s office. The three girls were reported runaways, the department added.
More teens have come forward and said that Grigsby also attempted to recruit them while attending school, the sheriff’s office said. The sheriff’s office is conducting a follow-up investigation with them, according to the Facebook post.
Kedria Grigsby posts bond, is released
Grigsby posted a $750,000 bond and is no longer in the Harris County jail, inmate records show.
USA TODAY attempted to reach Grigsby through listed numbers and emails but did not immediately get a response Friday.
As part of Grisby’s release conditions, she cannot contact the girls connected to the case, be within 1,000 feet of an area where children commonly gather or have access to a phone or the Internet, according to court records.
Text messages between Grigsby and her son about an alleged payment for prostitution services were shown during a court hearing, KRIV-TV in Houston reported.
Human trafficking: A network of crime hidden across a vast American landscape
Kedria Grigsby no longer employed by school district
Independent School District said in a statement to USA TODAY on Friday that Grigsby was a cosmetology teacher at Klein Cain High School and is no longer on the payroll.
The district said that Grigsby “will not return to Klein Cain or any Klein ISD school in any capacity, and we will continue to thoroughly investigate and prosecute any individual who betrays the trust of our students, families, and community.”
Accusations against Grigsby were initially brought up in February 2023 to human resources, who reported the information to the school district’s police department, the district said.
School police then contacted the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, who told the district that Grigsby was not a suspect, according to the district.
“The district received no other allegations or reports of criminal activities related to Kedria Grigsby until this Monday, April 8, 2024, when the Harris County Sheriff’s Department contacted our police department regarding charges and a pending arrest,” the district said. “That same day, the Klein Police Department immediately apprehended Kedria Grigsby and assisted the Harris County Sheriff’s Office with her arrest.
“Every potential employee must pass multiple background checks before being hired,” the district said, adding that Grigsby had a clear background check and criminal record until she was arrested.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Klein, Texas teacher charged with recruiting students for prostitution
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