ALICE, Texas - Jim Wells County Sheriff Daniel Bueno couldn't be more outraged over what Daniel Marcus Valdez is accused of doing.

“His desires and his intentions were to come and have a sexual relationship with this child,” the sheriff said of the man he calls a predator. The 37-year-old now former IDEA Charter school teacher from San Antonio was put in handcuffs in Alice, Texas for soliciting sex through social media from a 15-year-old.

The sheriff says Valdez drove two hours south to a neighborhood in Alice. He allegedly told family members he was coming here to referee a game. But the sheriff says that was far from the truth.

“He had beer and contraceptives with him when he arrived,” he said. 

But the sheriff says that's not the worst part. Since Valdez' arrest, more possible victims have called.

“The calls that we received, some of the victims are now 17, 18 and 20 years old,” he said. “This individual apparently did the same thing to several victims in the San Antonio area and Castroville.”

Based on the claims, Bueno says the incidents would have happened before Valdez began teaching at his latest school.  A search on the Texas Education Agency's website shows Valdez's teaching certificate under the public school system was revoked in 2015, just a few months after he was hired at the charter school. IDEA confirmed Valdez worked there as a PE teacher until he was fired last week following his arrest.

In Texas, charter school teachers do not have to be certified as in the public school system, unless they're teaching Special Education or bilingual classes.

An on-camera interview with IDEA officials on the matter was denied. Instead a school spokesperson answered our questions through email.

IDEA officials stated Valdez's employment eligibility was appropriately verified through fingerprint and name-based DPS background checks. The charter school did admit that at the time Valdez was hired, he was "under investigation by the State Board of Education and we should have caught this red flag."

Now school officials say, "effective immediately, all employees will go through an annual background check and certification review to prevent situations such as this from happening again."

“How many more are out there doing the same thing?” said Bueno.  We're very fortunate we had a victim that did come forward.”

We have filed a request to find out exactly why Valdez' certification was revoked back in 2015. We are waiting to hear back from the TEA.

And we also did find out that there is something parents can do to learn more about who is teaching your children.

You can go online to the TEA website and search a teacher's certificate status: http://tea.texas.gov/Texas_Educators/Certification/Certificate_Lookup/