A former Wimberley ISD teacher was charged with two counts of Assault Class C Offensive Contact stemming from accusations related to his conduct in the classroom earlier this year.
David Gregory Schachter, 53, of Kyle, pled not guilty to both charges, which are Class C misdemeanors.
“Mr. Schachter has pleaded not guilty to all charges and is looking forward to vigorously defending himself in court,” Lytza Rojas, who is an attorney representing Schachter, said. “We do not have any further information to share at this time.”
Schachter was booked into the Hays County Jail on September 28 and released the same day on $300 bond for each count.
According to the probable cause affidavit, a tip came into Crime Stoppers stating that Schachter, who taught at Danforth Junior High, would “touch the students butts, stroke and touch their face and play with their hair.” The affidavit also says the school resource officer “had taken several reports regarding David Schachter touching female students.”
This was Schachter’s first year working for WISD. He was hired in August of this year.
“Mr. Schachter was immediately placed on administrative leave in early September when the district learned of allegations of inappropriate conduct,” WISD said in a statement. “He has since resigned his position and is no longer working in the district. WISD has worked in cooperation with local law enforcement throughout the investigation process.”
WISD said that teachers hired take part in a candidate selection process that includes state and nation-wide background checks and interviews with campus leadership. The district requires reference checks with prior employers “including the supervising administrator from a candidate’s most recent school district.”
San Marcos Consolidated School District confirmed that they had previously employed Schachter but due to extenuating circumstances could not immediately confirm any information on his dates of employment or the reason he no longer works for the district. Online records show that Schachter was associated with San Marcos Consolidated School District last year, but school webpages with his information have been removed.
“For candidates recommended by Principals for consideration of hire, the WISD Human Resources office conducts a review (per Texas Education Code) of the applicants’ Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) fingerprint record to review the candidate’s criminal history (if any),” the statement from WISD continued. “If a record is not on file, the candidate must submit fingerprints to the DPS for review prior to receiving an offer of employment. In addition, the WISD HR office reviews the candidate’s teaching certification(s) through the State Board for Educators Certification (SBEC) to verify an active and satisfactory certification is held by the candidate. If any of the steps above result in non-satisfactory discoveries, an offer of employment will not be made.”
“WISD closely follows local Board policy and Chapter 21 of the Texas Education Code and complies by filing a report with the Texas Education Agency’s Division of Educator Investigations when allegations of inappropriate behavior are investigated and meet the state’s defined reporting requirements.”
