Posted on 06/29/2005 1:14:32 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Two Aldine Senior High School students were failing their chemistry course when their teacher approached them with an unexpected opportunity.
The teens could change their academic fate with one project — and it wouldn't be in the chemistry lab. For a little help in torching and dumping her financially troublesome car, investigators said, the teacher offered a tantalizing possibility — passing grades.
Now, teacher and students are facing far more serious trouble than any report card or grade book could offer.
Tramesha Lashon Fox, 32, of Kingwood, is charged with insurance fraud, a first-degree felony, and arson, a second-degree felony, authorities said. Officers were still searching for her Tuesday evening after obtaining warrants for her arrest.
A listed phone number for Fox could not be found Tuesday.
The two students, Roger Luna, 18, of the 100 block of Coach Lamp, and Darwin Arias, 17, of the 1100 block of Fallbrook, were also charged with arson. Luna was arrested Tuesday night, and Arias was making arrangements to surrender.
Fox, in an interview with Harris County fire marshal's investigators last week, admitted to conspiring with the two students to destroy her 2003 Chevrolet Malibu so she could collect insurance proceeds. In exchange, she told investigators, she gave the students passing grades.
Luna and Arias had been failing Fox's class up until their final exam, but secured grades high enough to pass the semester, investigators said. Arias was given a score of 90 on the final after "miserably" failing the course the previous semester, and Luna was given an 80, said senior fire investigator Dustin Deutsch of the Harris County Fire Marshal's Office.
Aldine Independent School District officials said Tuesday they knew little about the case. Fox, who completed her first year of teaching there, remains employed. School officials have not yet reviewed the law enforcement report that led to the charges against her.
Once the Harris County fire marshal's report is in hand, "our folks will then do a thorough investigation and then make a decision as far as employment status," said Leticia Fehling, Aldine ISD spokeswoman.
Fox previously worked for the Houston Independent School District, where she was a teacher at Welch Middle School. Records show HISD originally hired her in August 2000.
Fox was at least three months behind on her car payments and facing repossession when her vehicle was reported stolen on May 27, Deutsch said. The car had been destroyed by fire when it was found 12 days later in a wooded area near Arias' home.
Investigators say Fox had bought a new car, a 2005 Toyota Corolla, before the older car was reported stolen and burned. She owed about $20,000 on the Chevrolet, Deutsch said.
Deutsch said the students thought Fox was joking when she first approached them on campus in early May about the conspiracy. As she continued to pursue them, they realized she was serious.
The alleged plan called for Fox to leave her car unlocked at Northline Mall. On May 27, the last day of school, both students drove to the mall and found Fox's car unsecured with the windows down and the keys in the passenger compartment.
After the car was dumped in a wooded area in the 1300 block of Fallbrook, it was doused with charcoal lighter fluid and burned. The vehicle was vandalized and its steering column broken to make the car theft appear genuine, Deutsch said. Fox reported the theft to police that same day.
The torched car wasn't found until June 8. Investigators then traced the vehicle to Fox.
When officers first talked to Fox, she implicated other students in the crime, indicating she must have been targeted in a revenge plot, Deutsch said. Luna and Arias were not among those she named, he said.
After calling her in for questioning last week, Fox admitted to the hatched plan.
One of Fox's neighbors wasn't surprised to learn of the alleged arson plot. Fox told neighbors that she was a teacher when she moved into the neighborhood last summer in the 2100 block of North Park at Kings Manor, said Cinda Koh.
Neighbors were suspicious when Fox drove up with her new Toyota because she often complained about subsisting on a public school teacher's meager salary, Koh said.
"She's always saying that she doesn't have any money and doesn't know how she's going to pay her bills," Koh said.
peggy.ohare@chron.com mike.glenn@chron.com
Yes, and nobody despises it more than me. That being said, you won't ever see anyone mention something like, "Teacher Serves as Inspiration to Student." Positive information like that (in education and most things actually) is not allowed in the current mainstream media, and seemingly not here either.
Yes moog, there are good teachers (as there are good priests) and you do hear about them. However, this situation needs to be addressed and dealt with.
Investigators say over the last six months, Karina McCorkill stole $8,000 from Royal Oaks Elementary in Visalia.
She bought new hubcaps for her monster truck.
A car belonging to Tramesha Fox, who's accused of arson and insurance fraud, was allegedly burned by two ex-students.
It gives new meaning to the term of getting fired.
You are wrong.
BTW, I have two sisters-in-law who are teachers and a brother-in-law who is a school principal. They are inspirational because they love what they do and it shows. I hear most of the stories of lousy teachers too.
Send our kids to school so they can be preyed upon by the teachers. Hell, just turn the kids loose in the streets and save billions of dollars ion tax money. /Sarcasm
An Omaha public school teacher is under arrest on methamphetamine charges. Lynn Weibel, a fourth grade teacher at Wakonda Elementary, is charged with possession of meth
They didn't learn how to spell and thought being a math teacher meant doing drugs. They especially salivated whenever someone mentioned a lab for their math classes.
ion tax money
Guess we'll get radioactive then.
I guess that's true everywhere in every situation in every case then.
Those who can't do the time, teach those to do the crime.
How many stories of those good teachers do you hear about???? Not many, because it's not newsworthy. I agree that it needs to be dealt with and again, NOBODY despises it more than me. But then it is used as political fodder against education and to slander a lot of good people that I know are out there. That's what I don't like. I even feel moreso when the mainstream media slanders the military. I get even more upset then. It's funny that when a story supports our political cause we jump all over it and disregard those that don't (all from that SAME mainstream media).
Someone who posted a positive education story here would probably be pounced on.
Not sure what you're saying I'm wrong about. I haven't posted any real opinions to you.
I've posted many positive stories, they just happen to deal with homeschoolers.
Many people in my family (including me) have taught school. I know the territory.
Let's be real. These people work with our children. And there are too damn many bad apples being found but left in the barrel.
"I've posted many positive stories, they just happen to deal with homeschoolers.
Many people in my family (including me) have taught school. I know the territory.
Let's be real. These people work with our children. And there are too damn many bad apples being found but left in the barrel."
Like I was saying before........... :) I know the territory well too. I see both the good and the bad. But in a society that emphasizes the negative and blames things on others, the scales are tipped, especially with the mainstream media.
Well, I don't want people playing Russian roulette with their children's lives.
Yes, I overstated it a tiny bit. In the local monthly paper here, they do a good job and I see a ton of good news about the local schools and students. But then, they're not political either.
Yes, sometimes the local dailies will include some positive news too. BUT that is not what gets emphasized or is "news." It's the bad stuff that gets reported much more often than any positive things. Actually, that applies to about every area the media covers.
As for here, I've never seen a positive article about education because it doesn't fit the political agenda. I've often wondered what would happen if I posted one..........
Post it. I would love to see them!
See, you post what fits your political agenda. Enough said....... To be honest, we all probably do that in some form or another.
My parents played "Russian roulette" and still are, but realized that the parents are the major influence on a child's life and determined that they would do so. I'm grateful for the good teachers that I had. Some were not the best, but I learned a little from each one as did all my siblings. I won't bore you with all the details unless you want me to, but I'll just say that my brothers and sisters and I could not have had better parents.
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