I am asking the public to stand with James Louis Roden Jr., a longtime Texas public-school teacher, special-education-certified educator, coach, minister, father, and mandated reporter whose life was turned upside down after he reported suspected abuse and exploitation involving his intellectually disabled niece.

Texas law tells teachers and mandated reporters that they must report suspected abuse, neglect, or exploitation. Federal disability law also protects efforts to seek meaningful access, accommodations, and communication support for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

But in James Roden’s case, he alleges the opposite happened.

After reporting suspected renewed exploitation involving his intellectually disabled niece and asking officials to provide disability accommodations so she could be heard, James was arrested six days later on a first-degree felony witness-tampering charge. The charge carried life-altering consequences and publicly branded him with a devastating accusation.

James alleges that the warrant used to arrest him did not identify any real act of tampering. It did not show that he threatened anyone, bribed anyone, told anyone to lie, hid anyone from court, or asked anyone to avoid legal process. Instead, he alleges that his own advocacy records, reports, videos, and efforts to help his niece communicate were twisted into evidence of a crime.

The vulnerable person he was trying to protect never accused him of tampering with her.

The accusation came from someone living more than 700 miles away, someone James says was openly aligned with the stepfather he had reported—the same stepfather DNA confirmed had impregnated his intellectually disabled niece.

James was not the only one arrested.

His elderly disabled father, a retired United States Army veteran who served more than 20 years, including during the Vietnam era, was also arrested. James’s father is wheelchair-bound, can barely speak, and spends most days confined to bed because of serious health limitations. Yet he was placed in handcuffs, held in jail while confined to a wheelchair, and accused of a first-degree felony based on allegations James says were false and unverified.

The charges later failed to result in conviction, plea, deferred adjudication, indictment, or trial. But the damage did not disappear. James says the arrest destroyed his teaching career, damaged his reputation, harmed his family financially, and left background-check barriers that still prevent him from rebuilding his life.

This petition is not about revenge.

It is about accountability, transparency, and protection for the next teacher, parent, coach, minister, family member, or advocate who reports suspected abuse involving a disabled loved one.

If a mandated reporter can be arrested after reporting suspected abuse, every mandated reporter should be concerned.

If a family advocate can be punished for helping an intellectually disabled victim speak, every family with a disabled loved one should be concerned.

If a disabled victim’s voice can be ignored while the people helping her are criminalized, then the protections promised by law mean very little.

We Are Calling For

We ask the appropriate public officials, oversight agencies, lawmakers, civil-rights organizations, disability-rights advocates, and media outlets to:

Review the arrest and prosecution decisions involving James Louis Roden Jr., his elderly disabled father, and related family members.

Investigate whether the warrant affidavits contained material omissions or unsupported conclusions before first-degree felony charges were pursued.

Examine whether mandated reporter protections were ignored after James reported suspected abuse and exploitation.

Examine whether ADA and Section 504 disability-access protections were ignored when James requested meaningful communication and accommodations for an intellectually disabled victim-witness.

Review whether law enforcement conducted an independent investigation before relying on accusations from interested or credibility-impaired sources.

Require stronger protections for mandated reporters and family advocates who report suspected abuse involving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Require training for law enforcement, prosecutors, and victim-services personnel on IDD, ADA accommodations, witness communication, mandated reporting, and retaliation protections.

Bring public awareness to the danger of criminalizing advocacy when disabled victims need help being heard.

Why This Matters
James spent more than 20 years teaching students about responsibility, courage, constitutional rights, and standing up for those who cannot stand alone.

Now he is fighting to defend the same principles he taught.

This case raises a question every American should care about:

What happens when the person who reports suspected abuse becomes the one arrested?

If this can happen to a law-abiding teacher, father, coach, minister, and mandated reporter with no criminal history, it can happen to anyone.

If it can happen to an elderly disabled Army veteran, it can happen to any family.

If it can happen to an intellectually disabled victim whose advocates are silenced, it can happen to any vulnerable person who needs help.

We cannot allow a precedent where people with intellectual and developmental disabilities are ignored, discredited, or treated as easy targets while the people who try to help them are destroyed.

Please sign this petition to stand for mandated reporters, disabled victims, family advocates, teachers, veterans, and constitutional rights.

Report abuse. Protect the vulnerable. Defend the truth.

“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.” — Proverbs 31:8