Ex-Tatum Teacher Given Probation for Improper Relationship

HENDERSON — A former Tatum teacher will serve five years probation for having an improper relationship with a student. KETK and the Longview News-Journal report Kallie Boxell, 24, of Tatum, entered a plea deal on July 7 that includes deferred adjudication community service and the surrender of her teaching certification. During sentencing in Henderson, the victim’s mother made an impassioned impact statement on her child’s behalf, urging other people to come forward and report such offenses, Rusk County and District Attorney Micheal Jimerson said. “This result was entirely due to the tremendous courage and honesty of one young person who told the truth and did not waiver,” Jimerson said.

Online records show Boxell was an eighth-grade science teacher for the district earlier this year. In March, Tatum ISD Superintendent Dee Hartt said the district accepted the resignation of a teacher who was being investigated for multiple inappropriate relationships with students. Boxell in April turned herself in at the Rusk County Sheriff’s Office and was booked into the Rusk County Jail on $10,000 bond.