A former Texas beauty teacher accused of being the mastermind behind a twisted sex-trafficking scheme exploited girls ages 15, 16 and 17, cops claim.
Now, lawyers representing an alleged victim have launched a federal lawsuit against the Klein Independent School District in suburban Houston.
The lawsuit claims that the school district failed to protect the teens from an apex sexual predator.
According to cops, former Klein Cain High School cosmetology teacher Kedria Grigsby, 42, and her son Roger Magee, 21, recruited, groomed and trafficked several underage victims.
Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez told reporters the victims were 15-, 16- and 17-year-old students who had been reported as runaways.
Grigsby allegedly targeted troubled teens from local high schools, offering them a place to stay at a nearby low-rent motel. The alleged victim who launched the lawsuit attended Grigsby’s school.
In court documents, she is referred to as Jane Doe. Her lawyers told reporters outside the school district offices about their young client’s harrowing experiences.
“The devastating portion is Jane Doe was forced to sleep with 5 to 10 men a night and make $1,000 a day for Ms. Grigsby and her son while residing with them,” Civil rights attorney Bakari Sellers alleged.
Sellers added that the Harris County Sheriff’s investigators had confiscated Jane Doe’s phone and it includes text messages and Zelle (digital payment app) transactions between Jane Doe and more than 100 men.
So far, none of those men have been charged in connection with the investigation.
But the lawyer also blasted the school district for allegedly ignoring the multitude of red flags about Grigsby’s antics long before she was arrested.
Sellers said his client made a number of desperate pleas for help from members of the school community while she attended. Sellers said those cries went unanswered.
He added as one example that when Jane Doe showed up at school covered in bruises, a teacher reported it to school administrators but nothing was done.
“Her reward for going through that trauma was that she was withdrawn from school,” Sellers said, adding that he believes there are at least eight or nine other victims and he is urging them to come forward.
“We’re looking for all of these young ladies that were suffering in silence,” Sellers said.
For the whistleblower who pointed the finger at Kediria Gigsby and her son, there was brutal blowback. She was fired on the flimsiest of excuses.
“The entire system dropped the ball. It’s terrible. I raised hell, and they just made me feel like I was crazy. Klein could have at least put pressure on Harris County investigators back in 2023 to follow up and review the text messages,” Sellers said.
“No one took it seriously in 2023, and now the school district wants to act shocked after Grigsby got arrested.”