Parents, advocates tell LTISD board of alleged inconsistent discipline, assaults and unreported officer conduct

Several parents and community advocates used the Lake Travis ISD board’s public-comment period on June 9 to press trustees for action on school-safety, discipline equity and alleged police misconduct.

Speakers described incidents they said were either insufficiently investigated or inconsistently disciplined, and they asked the board to report alleged misconduct by a district officer, Officer Stephen Dean, to state authorities.

Catherine Sartre, a parent and advocate, told trustees she was “deeply concerned about the inequities and how disciplinary consequences are applied across grade levels.” Sartre contrasted suspensions of young children, including students with disabilities, with what she described as lack of formal consequences for a high-school assault that she said met the district’s code-of-conduct definition of violent conduct. “We are told it’s under investigation but from a parent’s perspective this is a dangerous inconsistency,” Sartre said.

Several speakers described specific assault incidents and questioned the district response. Anna Jones, the mother of a student who was severely beaten last May, said she had not been contacted by school police and that no report to the district attorney had been filed. “Marcus got grabbed… he got beat up around 20 times in his head with no chance to defend himself,” she said, and later added that she felt doors were closing when she sought formal law-enforcement action.

Melody Zara told the board she and other families had filed a Level 3 grievance alleging serious dereliction of duty by Officer Stephen Dean and said the district had not reported Dean’s alleged misconduct to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE) or the Travis County district attorney. Zara said the district’s interim chief had received an addendum to the complaint and had not made the required reports; she said surveillance footage later located contradicted the officer’s statements and that delays had harmed victims.

Zara asked trustees why Dean, who she said had prior issues in Bonham ISD, was allowed to continue in a campus role without what she described as appropriate discipline or a referral to TCOLE. “Parents shouldn’t have to expose this when Dean should be terminated and his TCOLE license revoked,” she said.

Board members did not take public action during the meeting; in response trustees and district officials repeated that staff must follow established complaint processes and that allegations involving officer conduct and campus safety are subject to administrative review. Interim Chief Sumrall (referred to in public comments) was named in comments as the district contact for grievance processing. District counsel and administration said some details from an intruder-detection audit must be withheld from public release for security reasons and that some matters would be discussed in executive session.

Speakers asked trustees to instruct staff to file required reports with TCOLE and the Travis County DA and to provide families with formal updates on investigations. The board did not announce actions or votes in open session on those specific public complaints; speakers said they would continue to press for reporting and accountability.

The public comments put trustees on notice of multiple complaints: alleged unequal application of discipline between younger and older students; claims of inadequate victim support after assaults; and allegations of unreported or withheld evidence relating to a district officer. The transcript shows these concerns arose across multiple public-comment speakers rather than as a single formal complaint brought directly by administration.