HOUSTON, Texas – Vincent Grayson, 57, the boys basketball coach at Booker T. Washington High School in the Houston Independent School District was charged on Monday as the leader of a million-dollar scheme where applicants who wanted teaching jobs would have someone else take their teacher certification tests for them.
The arrest and charges are a fall from grace for Grayson who earlier this year had been nominated for High School Coach of the Year at the Houston Sports Awards, reports Click2Houston.
He’s now been identified as the leader of an alleged scheme that brought in $1,090,000, although investigators believe the scheme probably made even more, reports Sports Illustrated.
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Over a four-year period, more than 200 teachers are believed to have each paid $2,500 to Grayson to have someone else take their teacher certification tests, reports ABC13. The individuals would show up at one of two testing centers at a specific time, show their ID, sign in and then leave. Then the assistant principal at Booker T. Washington High would take their tests. He took more than 430 exams, reports Click2Houston.
The names of the teachers who participated in the alleged fraud have not been released to the public.
4 Others, Besides Grayson, Arrested in Scandal
Grayson, who worked at Booker T. Washington High School for 22 years, was fired on Monday after he was identified as the ringleader of the scheme.
Four others were charged, including Tywana Gilford Mason, 51, the former director/VA certifying official at the Houston Training and Education Center; Washington assistant principals Nicholas Newton, 35, and Darian Nikole Wilhite, 22, a proctor; and LaShonda Roberts, 39, an assistant principal at Yates High School, reports Sports Illustrated. Grayson’s alleged accomplices were paid anywhere from $125,000 to $188,000 or more, depending on their roles in the scandal.
The scheme was discovered in mid-2023 when a former coach came forward with a tip. Additionally, the Texas Education Agency found “certain irregularities” at Houston’s Training and Education Center, which is where teaching candidates take their certification tests, reports NBC News. Investigators found that candidates who had previously failed their certification tests would drive from far away cities in Texas to take their exams at the center. They would then pass their tests.
Although the HTEC was shut down in 2023, the fraud continued at a different location, called TACTIX.
