Whistleblower speaks out about allegations of misconduct leveled at assistant principal

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- New details in the case of an HISD assistant principal who's been reassigned from Yates High School. It happened after several girls accused the assistant principal of inappropriate conduct.

The teacher who says she was the confidant for those students is now talking about why she came forward.

The teacher who brought all this to light talked to us on camera for the first time Thursday. She was hesitant at first because she didn't want to lose her job, but she told me she feels compelled to stand up for these students at Yates.

For the first time Shannon Bonner, the whistleblower at Yates High School, is speaking out.

"Let the kids know as well, you do not have to put up with this," she explained.

Bonner is a registered nurse and teaches health science at Yates.

On Wednesday we played an audio clip for you, one that Bonner says she recorded after several female students told her Assistant Principal Ray Gatlin touched them inappropriately.

One girl could be heard on the recording saying, "I be walking in the hallway, he do me like this, and I say stop touching me!"

Another said, "He likes hearing me say don't touch me. He came into class while I was sitting down and he touched me. And I just kept saying stop touching me, stop touching me!"

Now we're hearing from Bonner on why she chose to record the students.

"We have to stand up, we have to," she explained. "Sometimes people don't know that you can do this, you have a voice. And I want them to know that they have a voice."

This isn't the first recording to come out of Yates High School. We showed you a video back in May, one that appears to show a student mopping the hallway to make up school absences.

In that case, HISD told us the principal was advised to find academic work for students to do instead of manual labor.

As for the inappropriate conduct allegations, HISD said police investigated the claims and the case was closed. Bonner isn't satisfied.

"The officer said that he reached out to one parent but that he couldn't find the others," she said.

We tried to reach Gatlin on the phone, through email and in person. No response so far.

HISD told me police did report their findings to the district attorney's office, and they declined charges. I'm working on confirming that with the DA.