Jonathan Michael
Introduction
Jonathan Michael is a former Forney Independent School District special education teacher who was arrested on May 29, 2026, and charged with two counts of injury to a child and one count of child grooming after investigators said surveillance footage from Crosby Elementary School captured him violently taking down two special education students. Michael, 45, had been removed from the classroom in April 2026 when the allegations surfaced. The case took a darker turn when the district discovered he had legally changed his name before being hired — and that under his former name, Michael Roell, he had been tried in 2016 on a charge of indecency with a child.
Background Information
Michael joined Forney ISD, southeast of Dallas, in October 2025 as a special education teacher at Crosby Elementary School, passing all required fingerprint background checks through the Texas Department of Public Safety and the FBI and holding a valid teaching certificate at the time he was hired. What the checks did not surface was his history: public records show he was previously known as Michael Roell, a former Garland ISD special education teacher who was arrested in 2016 on a charge of indecency with a child involving sexual contact while working at Hudson Middle School. According to court records and Michael’s own filings in a 2019 civil lawsuit against Garland ISD, he was acquitted of that charge by a Dallas County jury — an acquittal the page records plainly, because the underlying allegation is part of why the name change mattered. District officials said they were unaware of the previous case because it had been filed under his former legal name.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
The allegations that ended his employment involve two incidents inside his Crosby Elementary classroom. According to the arrest affidavit, in January 2026 Michael became upset with a student, grabbed the child’s right arm, twisted the student’s wrist and performed an “armbar takedown,” then pushed the student into a bookshelf. In a separate February 2026 incident, the affidavit alleges Michael grabbed an 8-year-old student by a backpack or jacket, violently pulled the child to the floor — the student narrowly missed striking his head on a table — and pinned him down with his knee. Investigators reviewed classroom surveillance video showing the incidents. The affidavit also states that Forney ISD police received statements from staff alleging Michael physically and sexually abused special education students while employed at the school; the court documents do not specify the basis for the child grooming count.
Forney ISD removed Michael from his position in April 2026 after learning of the allegations, and the Texas Rangers arrested him on May 29, booking him into the Kaufman County Jail. Several classroom aides and the Crosby Elementary principal were also removed from their positions amid the fallout, and district officials have said none of those employees will return.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The case provoked anger in Forney that focused as much on the hiring as on the man. Forney City Councilman James Traylor called for scrutiny of how Michael was hired after legally changing his name, saying he contacted the Texas Attorney General’s Office, which referred him to the Texas Education Agency. “We had a monster on the streets of Forney, and that’s not ok,” Traylor told FOX 4. “Our kids deserve so much better than this.” The district notified families in April that an educator had been removed, without naming Michael, citing student privacy laws, and told parents a multi-agency investigation was under way with law enforcement, Child Protective Services and the Texas Education Agency. The name-change discovery — a teacher with a prior child-indecency trial history entering a new district under a new legal name — became the story’s most quoted fact.
Current Status
Michael is charged with two counts of injury to a child and one count of child grooming, and was booked into the Kaufman County Jail after his May 29 arrest by the Texas Rangers. The criminal case is pending; the fetched record does not show that he has entered a plea or that a trial date has been set, and the charges are accusations he is presumed innocent of unless proven guilty. His employment with Forney ISD is over — “He is no longer an employee of Forney ISD,” the district said in a statement — and the school’s principal and several aides were also removed and will not return.
Impact on Their Career/Life
Michael’s second chance in Texas public education lasted roughly seven months, from his October 2025 hiring to his April 2026 removal, and ended in a jail booking. The surveillance footage cited in the affidavit, the staff statements alleging far broader abuse, and the unresolved grooming count leave him facing charges that could bring years of imprisonment if proven. The case has already changed the conversation in his former district: a city councilman is formally pressing state agencies over how a legally renamed teacher with a prior indecency-with-a-child trial passed three rounds of background screening, and Forney ISD has conceded the prior case was invisible to its checks because it was filed under his former name.