Former Teacher Arrested for Sexual Conduct with Teen

FORT WORTH — A former North Side High School teacher who recently resigned after being caught with a 16-year-old student in a park was arrested Friday night, accused of having sex with the boy.

Emily Elizabeth Housley, who turns 29 today, was arrested at her mother’s Saginaw home shortly before 8:30 p.m., police said.

Housley, who is married and has two children, was being booked into jail Friday night, police said. She faces a charge of sexual assault of a child.

Housley, a math teacher, and her student had started flirting and exchanging text messages early this year when he was still 15, Detective T.L. Howard said. By April, after the boy had turned 16, the relationship evolved into sexual encounters — the first occurring inside Housley’s classroom after school hours, Howard said.

The sexual encounters continued — at the school, in Housley’s car, at her mother’s home, and at Housley’s Saginaw home when her husband and children were away, Howard said. After school let out for the summer, he said, Housley met the teen at his Fort Worth house while he was alone.

"She was going to a teacher conference that was near his house, and she was going over there on her lunch breaks and having sex with him," Howard said.

'I love you’

The investigation began after a Fort Worth patrol officer happened upon Housley and the teen sitting inside a parked car in Sycamore Park shortly before midnight June 30.

The teen initially gave the officer a false date of birth and stated that he was 18 but eventually admitted his real birthday. The officer confirmed that the boy was 16, the officer’s report stated.

The teen was arrested on suspicion of failure to identify/giving false information and released to juvenile authorities.

Housley was issued a citation for allowing a minor to remain in a public place during curfew hours.

She later met with the Fort Worth school district’s Office of Special Investigations to discuss the incident, Howard said.

"She admitted to them sending text messages to [the teen] saying, 'I love you,’ " Howard said. "She admitted that she had gone to his house recently and had lunch with him one time when no one was there."

The teacher subsequently resigned, he said.

The case was assigned to the crimes against children unit after the teen’s mother notified police Monday that her son had since confided in her that he and the teacher had been having sex.

Police searched Housley’s home Thursday, seizing her cellphone and computer, Howard said.

Housley, a graduate of Texas Christian University, had taught in the university’s Upward Bound summer program, which caters to students from middle and high schools in the Fort Worth district.

She was voted Upward Bound’s Teacher of the Year in 2004 and 2005, according to a small biography previously posted on the TCU Web site.

Barbara Griffith, a school district spokeswoman, said Housley had taught at North Side since January 2008.