How Does Teacher Accused of Child Sex, Slip Through Cracks?

A routine traffic stop in Nashville, leads down a road filled with cracks that expose holes in the system when a former Hamilton County teacher accused of sex crimes, is given a teaching job in Nashville and is now accused of doing the same thing there.

Ronald Boykin worked in the Hamilton County school system and at Brainerd High School as a teacher's aid off and on from the late 90's until 2005.

When allegations surfaced that year that Boykin was engaging in sexual acts with minors, he was suspended and resigned about two months later. A Hamilton County grand jury indicted Boykin in 2006 on four counts involving the rape, sexual battery by an authority figure, and the attempted sexual battery of three male victims-- two of them underage. The incidents date back to 1999.

Yet, despite outstanding warrants for Boykin's arrest in connection with the crimes, for the last two years, he has been teaching at Donelson Middle School in Nashville: now he's accused of sex crimes involving two 14 and 15 year old middle schoolers there.

"Thus far the department has identified two boys who say they were victimized and inappropriately touched by Boykin while at his home in Nashville," Metro police spokesperson Don Aaron says.

Once Nashville Metro police turned up the outstanding warrants on the Chattanooga charges during a traffic stop last week, they contacted the Nashville school system. Those charges were news school administrators.

According to Nashville schools, the TBI conducted three background checks on Boykin. Those checks do not include active warrants, so the man accused of the sexual battery of teenagers, was free to keep teaching.

Making matters worse, Hamilton County department of education spokesperson Danielle Clark says Nashville never called to ask them about Boykin's personnel file.

"To our knowledge, we do not have any record of a call or contact from Metro Nashville to check about Mr. Boykin," Clark says. She also says the director of human resources "does not have any recollection of a call coming in."

If Nashville school administrators had called Hamilton County, Clark says public documents like his suspension letter that details Boykin's misconduct, and his resignation letter would have been made available. But now, instead, Nashville has allegations and victims of their own claiming Boykin touched them inappropriately.

A TBI spokesperson says, all of the fingers can't be pointed at Nashville schools. Spokesperson Kristin Helm says the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office had information on Boykin's whereabouts; information that was given to them by the FBI  every time a background check was requested, and could have led to Boykin's arrest.

Sheriff Jim Hammond says he's looking into it.

"There does appear to be at least two, maybe three times that he applied for a private job where companies that wanted to put him to work, contracted with the TBI to see if there were any warrants on him," Hammond says. "The manner in which those searches took place is really the critical issue here. I've got to trace down who did what at what time to see was there an active warrant on this gentleman."

Boykin is due in court in Hamilton County for the four sex crimes this Friday, April 3rd. He's also facing five counts in Nashville.

All of Boykins outstanding charges were readily available as public record on the Hamilton County Court system's website.