Within three months of receiving a report that Worthing High School employee Lloyd Ford allegedly sent a Snapchat video to an 18-year-old student of himself masturbating and solicited the teen for sex, Houston ISD administrators “substantiated” the claim and fired him, according to district records and statements. 

Today, roughly a year later, Ford remains on the Texas Education Agency’s publicly searchable “Do Not Hire” list, effectively barring him from working in Texas public schools, as state investigators continue to review the sexual misconduct case. In an interview with the Houston Landing this month, Ford denied the allegations and said “I don’t even know the girl” at the center of the case.

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Despite the district’s findings and the state’s ongoing probe of Ford, HISD leaders haven’t notified the Worthing High community about the case against the campus’ former wraparound specialist, allowing rumors to swirl throughout the school. Ford, meanwhile, continues to maintain a high profile on the city’s south side, where he serves as a Super Neighborhood president and plans to launch a second campaign for City Council.

HISD’s handling of the Ford case, reported here for the first time, highlights the difficult balance that school districts aim to strike following allegations of employee sexual misconduct. While withholding information can protect victim privacy and provide a measure of due process to the accused, professors and advocates who work with child sex abuse victims said a lack of communication can sow distrust and keep additional victims from speaking up.

State law and HISD policy only require school district leaders to inform a victim’s parents or guardians about alleged staff misconduct. Districts can set their own policies for wider communications with students and families, though the Houston Landing found HISD and some of Texas’ largest districts have not adopted any such rules.

The Ford case, in particular, is complicated by the lack of criminal charges against the 37-year-old, with HISD and Harris County District Attorney’s Office leaders trading blame for the decision not to charge Ford. (It’s a felony in Texas for secondary school employees to sexually solicit students, regardless of whether the student is 18 years old.)

In a statement, HISD administrators defended their decision to withhold information about Ford, saying it “would have been inappropriate for the district to notify the public” because Ford has not been charged with a crime. The district did not respond when the Landing asked which official to attribute the statement to.

HISD administrators said a detective from the school district’s police department, which conducted the criminal investigation, communicated multiple times with the District Attorney’s Office before prosecutors ultimately decided not to file charges. 

A District Attorney’s Office spokesperson, however, said HISD police did not provide prosecutors with the physical or digital evidence needed to file charges. Then-district attorney Kim Ogg ran the office at the time, ceding the position to Sean Teare in 2025.

“When someone calls to present charges to this office, they need to present evidence,” District Attorney’s Office Chief of Communications Courtney Fischer said. “It’s not our job to get the evidence.”

Ford, meanwhile, maintained that there’s no evidence to collect. He called the allegations “politically motivated” ahead of a planned 2027 City Council campaign.

“Of course it’s not true,” Ford said. “I’ve done nothing but try to help. And, again, I’m still doing that.”

Following the interview, Ford provided the Landing with a document printed on HISD letterhead that said a sexual harassment allegation against him was “not substantiated.” However, when HISD administrators reviewed the document at the Landing’s request, they said they “believe it is falsified” and provided an identical document with one difference: the allegation was “substantiated.” 

Investigative records obtained by the Landing do not detail the evidence uncovered by HISD police or human resources employees who investigated the case, including whether a copy of the alleged video exists. The records also don’t explain why HISD administrators substantiated the allegations or what burden of proof they relied on. 

HISD administrators declined to detail the evidence against Ford in response to questions from the Landing, arguing the probe is “confidential.”

Fischer said the alleged victim declined to participate in a potential criminal case against Ford.

The allegation

Ford grew up in Houston’s Third Ward and has worked in community advocacy on Houston’s south side for nearly a decade. He unsuccessfully sought the NAACP Houston Branch presidency in 2018, came in third in the 2023 City Council District D race with 14 percent of the vote, and now serves as president of the combined Super Neighborhood covering South Acres, Crestmont Park and Minnetex.

During that time, Ford faced a lawsuit from the NAACP Houston Branch, which accused him of altering its website to direct donations to an organization he runs. The NAACP Houston Branch dropped the lawsuit two weeks later, citing “good faith actions” by Ford, court records show.

Midway through the 2023-24 school year, Ford began working at Worthing High as a wraparound specialist, according to district payroll records. On a campus where 96 percent of children are considered “economically disadvantaged” by the state, Ford was tasked with helping students in need access resources like food, clothing and transportation.

The allegation of Ford acting inappropriately toward the 18-year-old student surfaced in April 2024, when a student reported the alleged sexual misconduct to an unspecified person, according to a document later sent to the TEA by HISD administrators. The next day, Worthing High Principal Alexandria Gregoire reported the allegation to HISD’s Title IX office, according to the document.

HISD police launched a criminal investigation, while its Employee Relations Investigations department conducted a human resources probe, according to district statements and documents.

The Employee Relations Investigation concluded in late May 2024, with HISD sending an electronic letter to Ford and his supervisor stating investigators substantiated a claim that he “sexually harassed a student.” The message didn’t detail the alleged misconduct or the evidence obtained by human resources investigators, though a separate HISD document dated early June 2024 referred to the alleged video and solicitation claim. 

With regard to the criminal investigation, HISD administrators said district police presented the case to prosecutors roughly one month after the initial allegation.

By fall 2024, the case hit a standstill and the District Attorney’s Office declined to pursue charges, according to both agencies. 

However, Fischer said the District Attorney’s Office “can always accept charges based on more evidence.” If new leads emerge, such as additional victims coming forward, HISD said it “would reopen the investigation.”

The response

In the year since the initial allegation against Ford, students and staff members have gathered bits and pieces of information about the situation, but they remain mostly in the dark on the details of the claim and how administrators addressed it.

Three of four former Worthing High teachers interviewed by the Landing for this story said they had previously heard about the allegation. They also recalled students openly talking about the allegation and parents unsuccessfully pressing school administrators for information. (Three educators spoke on-the-record, while one requested anonymity due to concerns about future employment at HISD.)

The lack of official information on the Ford case left Bennett, the former Spanish teacher, wondering whether the allegations may have been false. She hadn’t heard anything from the school, hadn’t seen any news stories about him and knew he was still active in the community.

“I feel that, if he did do it, that’s something that should have been communicated to us as a staff,” Bennett said.

HISD said it has stayed publicly silent on the issue to protect the student who made the allegation.

“Any communication to the wider community must be balanced against the privacy rights of the victim,” administrators said in their statement.

However, four professors and advocates focused on the handling of child sexual abuse told the Landing that withholding information about employee misconduct can let parental fears spiral and prevent other potential victims from speaking up.

“It’s really important that people are alerted, so that if there are students who may have experienced sexual victimization, they can come forward and there are resources available for them,” said Elizabeth Jelgic, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice who studies child abuse prevention.

When incidents get “swept under the rug,” it’s easier for institutional patterns of abuse to go unrecognized, Jelgic said. She and the other experts recommended school districts adopt policies or go-to guidelines for how to navigate communicating with the public when allegations of educator sexual misconduct arise.

The practice

The Landing surveyed the 10 largest Texas school districts about their policies and practices regarding community notification following instances of educator misconduct allegations. 

Of the four that responded, none said they had formal policies for how to publicly communicate in such situations. Dallas and Fort Bend ISDs said they make such decisions on a “case-by-case” basis, while Austin and Conroe ISDs said their goal is to share information once it’s available, such as when charges are filed.

“Our practice is to notify the entire school community in as timely a fashion as possible,” Conroe Executive Director of Communications Sarah Blakelock said. After the April arrest of a kindergarten teacher accused of soliciting a minor, a Conroe principal sent a message to her school community within hours, Blakelock said. 

A Texas Association of School Boards resource document on handling misconduct recommends district leaders “be prepared to respond to the ripple effect that an incident, or a publicized allegation, will inevitably have on the district community,” but it does not provide clear guidelines on how to do so. 

The guide also recommends schools make counseling resources available to students and staff affected by the allegations. However, HISD said it did not do so at Worthing High because “it would not have been appropriate given the nature and specifics of this incident.”

For now, Ford continues to maintain a public persona. He frequently posts on Instagram about Super Neighborhood meetings and his 2027 bid for City Council, with one February campaign video showing him standing outside Yates High School in Third Ward.

“I know I’m in the public eye, so I know people are always going to want to say stuff,” Ford said in an interview. “So I typically don’t let drama penetrate what we’re trying to do.”

Asher Lehrer-Small covered Houston ISD for the Landing. Find him @by_ash_ls on Instagram and @small_asher on X, or reach him directly at a.lehrersmall@gmail.com.

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