MCALLEN, Texas — After more than three hours of deliberation behind closed doors the Donna ISD school board decided to amend the suspension of the former interim police chief in order to pay him during that term.
The change came just one day after Breitbart Texas exposed the widespread corruption that has singled out the small border school district. Sgt. Dan Walden, the former interim school chief had been suspended without pay in what appears to be a power play by one faction of the school board trying to get the superintendent out of office.
The allegations against Walden were that he had ignored an investigation into an improper relation between an educator and a student, however as Breitbart Texas pointed out in the recent article mentioned above, Walden had followed the correct steps in the investigation and sought the help of an outside agency.
Walden’s efforts were cut short when current Police Chief Roy Padilla, who had been fired and sued the district to get his job back, immediately demoted Walden. Padilla is the brother of the now infamous Joe Padilla from the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office who is in federal prison after getting convicted of taking cash bribes from a Mexican drug cartel capo. Roy Padilla is the person that recommended that Walden be suspended.
A high ranking member within Donna ISD administration spoke with Breitbart Texas and confirmed that during the executive session meeting the board decided to change Walden’s suspension from without pay to with pay.
During the school board meeting, President Alberto Sandoval and the members on his faction spoke about how the students are important to them. After much grandstanding, at the end of the meeting all that was done before the public was to reword the student and employee handbook to have stronger wording discouraging teachers and employees using socials media and text messages to communicate with students.