KCBD Investigates: Seagraves ISD superintendent bonds out of jail

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - The Gaines County Sheriff’s Office confirms Seagraves ISD Superintendent Josh Goen is out of jail. Goen is charged with invasive visual recording after a student found a recording device in a Seagraves locker room.

Goen bonded out on Tuesday, Dec. 6. His bond was set at $7,500.

Hale Center ISD Superintendent Steven Pyburn says the investigation into Goen began when an 8th-grade Hale Center ISD student identified a recording device found in a Seagraves ISD locker room.

Pyburn said the Hale Center ISD girls’ basketball team was playing at Seagraves ISD back on Nov. 15. When they entered the locker room, they saw something that resembled a phone charger.

“Luckily, the girls set down a speaker in front of the device that blocked the view of the girls changing,” Pyburn said.

One of the last girls to leave the locker room thought the device was a phone charger that belonged to her teammate, so she brought it on the bus.

Pyburn said none of the girls on the team claimed it, so it was left on the bus. He said the next day, an 8th grader who was on a field trip recognized that it was not a phone charger, but a recording device.

That student turned it in to Hale Center ISD’s Dean of Students, Tyson Jones, who then turned it over to the county’s School Resource Officer Colby Neil.

The arrest warrant says investigators reviewed Seagraves security video from Nov. 15. The footage shows Seagraves ISD Superintendent Joshua Neil Goen entering the locker room from the hall, but he is not seen leaving. Shortly after, the same camera shows the Hale Center girls’ basketball team arrive and enter the same locker room.

Authorities got a search warrant to review footage on the device and found videos that showed the locker room, a changing area with an expectation of privacy. The first video shows an empty locker room. The second video shows the Hale Center girls entering the locker room. The third video is interrupted by the device being unplugged.

A further search of the SD card showed many other videos, including one showing Goen, who was positively identified by an FBI agent.

The arrest warrant states the recording device was placed in a changing room with the intent to record people without their consent.

“It is my understanding that this investigation is ongoing. I would personally thank Tyson Jones and Officer Colby Neil for always protecting our students,” Pyburn said.

Seagraves ISD’s Superintendent Joshua Goen was arrested and charged with invasive visual recording on Monday, Dec. 6.

This is a multi-agency investigation including the FBI, Homeland Security, Hale County Sheriff’s Office, Gaines’ County Sheriff’s Office, and the Seagraves Police Department.

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