Hoyer Law Group client Andrea Whelan worked as a senior auditor and investigator for the Dallas Independent School District (“DISD”) from 2013 until she was fired in 2022. Andrea believes she was fired because she tried to expose fraud and corruption at DISD.
Andrea was asked to audit grades and attendance at DISD for reporting, partly to state and federal agencies that provide funding to DISD. During her investigation, Andrea uncovered what she believed (and still believes) was a massive amount of improper grade changing and false attendance reporting designed to make DISD look far better in terms of both performance and attendance than it was. Her efforts to report the fraud and corruption she believed to have uncovered were met with resistance, push-back, and an outright refusal to accept or publish her detailed findings. Instead, DISD published a diluted version of Andrea’s reporting and then moved to and ultimately did fire her.
During her audit, Andrea discovered what appeared to be an assault at the school. She felt obligated to investigate further due to the public safety risk. After a detailed and thorough investigation, Andrea concluded and reported that a special needs student violently assaulted a teacher aide, who died in the hospital a few days later. Andrea further discovered that the student was still at DISD – only transferred to another school despite a history of violence. Andrea attempted, to no avail, to bring this safety risk to management.
Nevertheless, the facts of this potential assault have come to light and now are the subject of extensive reporting in Dallas. In this report, journalist Brett Schipp interviews witnesses to the attacks and further details Andrea’s contribution to exposing critical facts. The family of the deceased teacher aide has sued DISD for $20 million.
