James Louis Roden Jr.

My name is James Louis Roden Jr.

In education, many people know me as Coach Roden. In music, I release songs as James Roden Jr. In ministry, I serve as a Christian minister and founder of the Holistic Church of Christ, a non-denominational street ministry devoted to faith, service, outreach, and helping people who are too often overlooked.

For more than 20 years, I have dedicated my life to education, coaching, mentorship, ministry, writing, music, and advocacy. I am a Texas educator, special-education-certified teacher, curriculum writer, coach, author, songwriter, minister, father, and mandated reporter. My life’s work has been built around helping people learn, grow, overcome adversity, and believe that their future can be greater than their past.

Over the course of my education career, I have worked with more than 10,000 students and personally coached more than 1,000 athletes. Those numbers are not just statistics to me. They represent young people I taught, encouraged, challenged, mentored, coached, and tried to help become better students, better athletes, better leaders, and better people.

As a teacher, I have taught lessons about history, government, citizenship, responsibility, leadership, constitutional rights, and the importance of standing up for what is right. As a coach, I have taught discipline, teamwork, accountability, resilience, and the value of fighting through adversity. As a curriculum writer and education leader, I have worked to create learning experiences that help students think deeply, connect ideas, and understand the world around them.

My work has never been limited to one classroom, one field, or one title. I have written about education, coaching, sports, analytics, advocacy, self-improvement, leadership, faith, and personal growth. Through my books and music, I have reached audiences beyond my local community and connected with people across the country and around the world. Whether through teaching, coaching, writing, ministry, or music, my mission has always been the same: to encourage people, strengthen families, defend the vulnerable, and inspire others to keep moving forward.

I am also the founder of the Holistic Church of Christ, a Christian street ministry created to serve people in practical and spiritual ways. Through this ministry, I have worked with the homeless, supported struggling families, and helped veterans seek the benefits, resources, and dignity they earned through their service. My faith has always taught me that ministry is not just something spoken from behind a pulpit. It is something lived in the streets, in the classroom, in the locker room, in the community, and anywhere people need hope.

I believe deeply that when someone is vulnerable, someone must be willing to stand beside them.

That belief is what led me into education.

It is what led me into coaching.

It is what led me into ministry.

It is what led me into advocacy.

And it is what led me into the fight I am in today.

I am currently fighting a federal civil-rights lawsuit after I was arrested shortly after making a mandated report involving suspected abuse and exploitation of an intellectually disabled woman. As a teacher and mandated reporter, I believed I was doing what the law, my conscience, my faith, and my profession required me to do: report danger, protect the vulnerable, and help a disabled person be heard.

Instead, my life was turned upside down.

I lost my teaching career. My reputation was damaged. My family was devastated. My ability to work, serve, and rebuild was severely harmed. Everything I had spent more than two decades building was placed at risk because I did what teachers are told they must do: report suspected abuse.

This civil-rights fight is personal, but it is not only about me.

It is about every teacher, coach, counselor, nurse, social worker, minister, advocate, charity worker, and public servant who is legally required to report suspected abuse, neglect, or exploitation. It is about whether mandated reporters are truly protected when they speak up for the vulnerable. It is about whether people with intellectual and developmental disabilities will be heard, respected, protected, and given meaningful access to justice.

The law cannot punish people for failing to report abuse and then punish them again when they do report abuse.

That contradiction should concern every educator in America.

Teachers are often the first people to notice when something is wrong. We see the warning signs. We hear what others may not hear. We build trust with students and families. We are told that when we suspect abuse, we must report it. But if reporting suspected abuse can be twisted into a criminal accusation, then every mandated reporter is placed in danger.

No teacher should have to choose between obeying the law and protecting their own freedom.

No coach should have to fear being destroyed for defending a vulnerable person.

No family advocate should be criminalized for helping a disabled person communicate.

No minister should be punished for standing with the broken, the forgotten, or the falsely accused.

My story is about the cost of standing up, but it is also about the courage to keep standing.

I have spent my life teaching students to believe in truth, responsibility, courage, and constitutional rights. Now I am fighting to defend those same principles in my own life.

I am standing for innocence.

I am standing for teachers.

I am standing for disabled victims.

I am standing for veterans, families, students, athletes, and advocates.

I am standing for every person who has ever been falsely accused, silenced, ignored, or punished for telling the truth.

This is a fight for my name, my family, my career, and my future. But it is also a fight for something much larger: the future of mandated reporter protections in America.

If teachers are not protected when they report suspected abuse, then the vulnerable are not protected either.

Now is the time to take a stand.

Report abuse. Protect the vulnerable. Defend the truth.