CONROE, Texas A 42-year-old junior high teacher is facing multiple charges after investigators say they caught him soliciting a teen for sex online.
When investigators from the Harris County Precinct 4 High Tech Crimes unit began searching for offenders in early August, they said they found Thomas Vickers online in Magnolia, searching for a teenage girl.
An undercover officer posed as a 14-year-old girl and began chatting with Vickers.
Investigators said the conversation quickly turned to sex, and Vickers turned on his Web camera.
At which point he was not fully clothed. Well, not clothed at all, Sgt. Gary Spurger said.
Detectives said Vickers solicited the undercover officer for sex and showed pornographic images he already had of other underage girls.
Disturbing, to be sure, but perhaps even more so because of Vickers job. He s an 8th grade U.S. History teacher at Moorhead Junior High, and has been for 16 years.
Conroe ISD police arrested Vickers without incident, and he was charged with online solicitation of a minor, possession of child pornography and enticing a child. Vickers was being held at the Harris County Jail Friday on $150,000 bond.
Conroe ISD officials have since placed Vickers on administrative leave, pending their investigation into his arrest.
In a letter sent home to parents, Moorhead principal Dr. Sarah Sanders said district officials have no reason to believe the allegations against Vickers involved Conroe ISD students or took place on district property.
But that is the scenario investigators fear. The teacher was allegedly seeking sex online with a girl the same age as his students, and he reportedly told investigators he has had sex with girls as young as 14 in the past.
That s exactly what his target age was. This is who he was looking for. When he was chatting with the undercover, that s exactly the age he was interested in, Eric Devlin of the Harris County District Attorney s Office said.
Parents or students with any information on the case are asked to contact Precinct 4 at 281-401-6205 or Conroe ISD police at 936-709-8911.
School district faculty and staff wish to assure parents and students that the safety and well-being of our students is always our first priority and urge them to contact the principal, assistant principals, or the school counselor if any questions or concerns arise, Sanders wrote in the letter to parents.
