Round Rock ISD police chief leaves role, claims district did not report student sexual assault to police

ROUND ROCK, Texas - A letter from Round Rock ISD police chief Dennis Weiner to the district superintendent reveals new details about his sudden departure from the department.

The letter, posted to Facebook by Round Rock ISD Board of Trustees member Danielle Weston, claims that a 5-year-old student was sexually assaulted on a school bus by another student, and that RRISD police were not notified by any district employee until three days after the incident.

In the letter, Weiner claims that the student was assaulted on Friday, April 12. Weiner says the assault was witnessed by the bus driver, and that a transportation supervisor was made aware of the incident and reviewed camera video from when the assault occurred.

Weiner says that neither the bus driver nor the supervisor reported the incident to the police.

The letter goes on to say that campus leadership had reviewed the video on Monday morning, April 15, but did not notify the police. Weiner claims that the multiple leaders within the district, including Round Rock ISD superintendent Dr. Hafedh Azaiez, were made aware of the assault, but none of them notified the police.

Weiner also claims in the letter that Dr. Azaiez did not notify him of the assault in person at a one-on-one meeting on Monday.

The letter says that, because the police were not notified of the assault, the victim had to ride the school bus again on Monday morning with the subject who assaulted her the Friday before. The letter also says that subsequent investigation revealed that the victim and one other student had been previously assaulted on the same bus route by the same subject in the recent past.

Weiner says in the letter that he has lost trust in district leadership to ensure that he and the Round Rock ISD police department can protect the students and staff of the school district.

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The letter was posted in full to Facebook by Round Rock ISD Board of Trustees member Danielle Weston, who included a joint statement from her and fellow board member Mary Bone:

Round Rock ISD responded to Weiner's allegations with the following statement:

"Our commitment to the safety and well being of our students has never wavered. The content of Mr. Weiner’s letter inaccurately represents personnel matters and an incident involving minors. All incidents involving students have been addressed in accordance with applicable law and district policy."

The Round Rock ISD Board released the following statement:

Lauren Griffith will now serve as interim police chief. She became a sergeant in 2021 and has served students and staff since 2020.

The leadership changes come following the release of a scathing report against Chief Weiner, which was circulated this week on social media.

The report, conducted by a private investigator in October and released on Tuesday, interviewed staff working in the district police department following complaints filed against Chief Weiner.

The private investigator was hired by Dr. Azaiez, apparently withou the knowledge of the Board of Trustees.

According to the report, the department's climate and culture are "extremely negative," describing the department as "toxic" and "chaotic" with "no two-way communication."

The report claims there is a "lack of professional communication by the Chief" including inappropriate comments made to and about other officers in the department.

The report also says that officers are often in downtown Round Rock and not on their respective school campuses, which could cause an issue if a security threat occurs.

Round Rock ISD announced the personnel shake up in the police department on Tuesday, the same day the report was made public.