A female black teacher has been arrested, accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a sixth-grade girl

Terrie Rhodes is charged with indecency with a child/sexual contact and improper relationship between educator and student. She was being held in the Fort Bend County Jail on bonds totaling $30,000. Rhodes, 46, was taken into custody at Fort Settlement Middle School, where she’s been working as a seventh-grade English teacher since August 2010. But investigators said the allegations against Rhodes surfaced in 2009, when she was teaching at Fort Bend ISD’s Lake Olympia Middle School. Fort Bend ISD officials said the mother of a sixth-grade student at Lake Olympia reported finding inappropriate text messages between her daughter and Rhodes on the girl’s cell phone. After the text-message allegations surfaced, the district placed Rhodes on administrative leave and informed the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office, who launched an investigation. But after nearly a year of administrative leave, the district re-instated Rhodes on April 12, 2010, in a long-term substitute position at Garcia Middle School for the remainder of that school year. After that, Rhodes was hired at Fort Settlement Middle School. Fort Bend ISD said the sheriff’s office never gave them any details on their investigation of Rhodes, and that the district was never made aware of any allegations of misconduct beyond text-messaging. The sheriff’s office said they believe Rhodes and the student had sexual contact in one of the classrooms at Olympia. Investigators said it took two years to build the case because they had trouble getting records from two cell phone service providers. As a result of her arrest, Fort Bend ISD said they’ve put Rhodes on administrative leave, pending further action by the school board. Investigators said they’re concerned that there may be other victims and encouraged anyone with information to contact the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office at (281) 341-4685. If convicted, Rhodes could face two to 20 years in prison.