Royce “Sully” Sullivan, one of four candidates running for a seat on San Antonio Independent School District’s board of trustees, pleaded no contest to two misdemeanors in connection with an incident in which he allegedly struck children. Sullivan said the 2010 case stemmed from charges brought by an ex-wife amid a custody battle.
Sullivan, a former Beaumont resident, was indicted in Jefferson County in December 2010 on two felony charges, one for hitting a child with a firearm and one for hitting a child with a paddle, according to court documents. He pleaded no contest in 2012 to two misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and completed two years of deferred adjudication probation.
Sullivan told the Rivard Report that the charges stemmed from allegations made by an ex-wife who was looking to start a “custody battle.” He denied ever hitting a child with a gun, but conceded he had struck a child with a paddle when he was working for a school district that allowed paddling as a form of discipline. However, Sullivan said, he has never hit a child with a paddle excessively.
Sullivan, who moved from Beaumont to San Antonio in 2010, said he pleaded no contest to reduced charges to avoid a trial so he could remain in San Antonio for the upcoming birth of a child, rather than returning to Beaumont to deal with the case, Sullivan said.
Seeking election to SAISD’s board representing District 2, Sullivan is a former educator who lists his current occupations as a pastor and home health care worker.
He said that after examining scripture in his role as pastor and looking further into the use of corporal punishment to discipline students, Sullivan said he believes “whuppings don’t work” and that he wouldn’t recommend the practice to a school district.
He said the felony charge relating to a firearm stemmed from an incident that occurred after a night on which he failed to secure a gun because of a power outage. The next day, one of his children accessed the gun.
“In a community that I grew up in … in the communities I’ve lived in, secure for us is on the top shelf behind something,” Sullivan said. “Secure for me was at least in a lockbox. I know now secure is in a lockbox with a trigger lock as well.”
Responding to anyone who may have concerns about his school board candidacy, Sullivan said he is “very transparent and organic.”
“Organic food doesn’t have any MSG, and just like that, there are no hidden messages with me,” Sullivan said. “My life is my life, and I have been through many twists and turns and because of that it makes me a very valuable candidate.”
Dr Sullivan is a wonderful man that has been through alot of twist and turns. He has weathered those storms with grace, humility and has stood as a man for his family and his community. He truly cares for the eastside community and the people he provide God’s word too.
He certainly isn’t as bad as the current bunch of sellouts on the SAISD Board.
Furthermore more he was not found guilty! Give the man a break!
He was not found guilty because in the school districts where corporal punishments are allowed, unless your child end up in emergency room or dies, immunity laws make impossible to convict a school administrator for a paddling, even if the kid end up full of bruises.
Keep this guy as far as possible from kids. What does it means for this man paddling a a kid, just because the law allow it, not excessively? That he never provoked bruises? He never broke a bone of a defenceless child?
So, end of the story he should be in jail but school districts policies and immunity laws allowed him to hit children with a wooden paddle. Not the decent kind of person that I would like around my children.
I’m pretty sure that as soon as he’s elected he will try to introduce corporal punishments in the school district. Someone capable of cold blood paddling students, will try to keep doing, sometimes with disturbing reasons.
Why doesn’t Rivard actually report about current SAISD board members and their inability to oppose the current superintendent as he continues to bring in for-profit charters, close schools, lay-off teachers, and privatize district operations? Why doesn’t Rivard report about how much money the SAISD spends in district administration versus other districts? Why doesn’t Rivard investigate how many teacher vacancies remain in SAISD? That’s where real reporting should go, but the powers that be continue to focus on anything but that. True journalism searches for facts and the truth, why don’t you start from that space and see what you come up with?
Anyone can call CPS & make a fake allegations againts you and those allegations even when not true will follow you for the rest of your life. I grew up in a time where corporal punishment was in school. It taught us discipline, crime was not as high & most kids obeyed their parents. Now they are gunned down in the streets by police because parents are not allowed to discipline their kids without CPS being called & trumped up allegations by school administration to have your bad kids removed from school. Remember they don’t expel them anymore so they make up stuff & call CPS to get rid of them now. All SAISD can find any kind of reason to call CPS on your child & they do not have to notify the Principal.