It was the fall semester of 2022 when ‘Mr. McGann’ began working as a fourth-grade teacher at Donald Elementary in Flower Mound, Texas.
In less than a year, he had resigned, following complaints from parents which sparked an internal investigation.
For the next couple of years, he bounced around schools and states – with brief stints at two districts in Oklahoma each only lasting a school year.
The 2025 fall semester was set to be no different. He moved to Arkansas and was soon to begin a job teaching fifth grade.
That all changed when the man students and parents knew as Mr. McGann was arrested for the murders of a couple in front of their two young daughters.
Andrew James McGann, 28, is accused of stabbing Clinton Brink, 43, and Cristen Brink, 41, to death on a hiking trail at Devil’s Den State Park, Arkansas.
The couple were hiking with their daughters, aged seven and nine, on Saturday afternoon when the alleged random, broad daylight attack unfolded.
Cristen rushed the children toward the family’s car and to safety, before the attacker claimed both parents’ lives.
Elementary school teacher Andrew McGann seen in mugshot following his arrest for murder
Extraordinary CCTV has emerged showing the moment McGann was arrested while getting a haircut
For parents whose children were students of McGann’s, the grisly crime hits close to home.
But, for some, it also raises chilling questions about the elementary school teacher’s allegedly creepy behavior toward young girls in his care.
Lindsay Polyak’s son attended Donald Elementary in Texas when McGann began his first qualified teaching job there.
She told the Daily Mail her son began coming home from school and telling her how McGann was treating girls in his class differently to the boys.
‘My son would come home and tell me Mr. McGann was running around playing tag and Truth or Dare with the girls during recess,’ she said.
At first, she said it seemed ‘a bit off’ and a ‘little weird’ but wasn’t too alarming.
But as the school year went on, she said her son’s stories about the teacher’s behavior increasingly raised ‘red flags’.
‘It kept going through the school year, and my son started telling me that Mr. McGann would bring candy to school, but he was only rewarding the girls, showing favoritism toward them, not the boys,’ she said.
Polyak said her son told her it then escalated to McGann hosting ‘special lunches’ for some of the girls in his fourth-grade class, aged nine or 10.
Cristen Brink, 41, and Clinton Brink, 43, were stabbed to death Saturday afternoon along a trail at Devil’s Den State Park, Arkansas
Police tape cordons off the crime scene where the couple was murdered last weekend
Polyak said other parents then began telling her McGann was allegedly ‘tickling’ their daughters or making bizarre comments.
‘It was early May and other parents of girls started telling me that, for example, their daughter sat in his lap in the classroom. He was tickling girls,’ she said.
According to other parents, ‘He was telling one of them she was beautiful, and he wished he could marry her. It was just really inappropriate’.
Fellow parent Sierra Marcum echoed these concerns, telling NBCDFW her son used to say McGann was paying ‘special attention’ to some girls in the class and kept them back during recess for ‘one-on-ones’.
Polyak told the Daily Mail several girls’ parents made complaints about McGann’s behavior to the school and he was placed on administrative leave.
In a statement following McGann’s arrest, Lewisville Independent School District confirmed he was placed on administrative leave in spring 2023 ‘following concerns related to classroom management, professional judgment, and student favoritism’.
An internal investigation was conducted which found ‘no evidence of inappropriate behavior with students’ but did find ‘his classroom management and professional judgment’ to be below ISD’s expectations, the district said.
McGann resigned from his position in May 2023, before the end of the school year.
He then moved to Oklahoma and began a new role teaching fifth grade at Spring Creek Elementary with Broken Arrow Public Schools. The district said he was employed there for the 2023 to 2024 school year then left ‘of his own accord.’
Investigators previously released this image of a person of interest in the case
After that, he worked as a fifth-grade teacher for Sand Springs Public Schools in Oklahoma from summer 2024 through to May 2025 when he resigned ‘to move out of state’, the district confirmed in a statement.
McGann was due to take up a position with Springdale Public Schools in Arkansas this fall, Superintendent Jared Cleveland said in a statement following his arrest.
Cleveland said McGann had not yet begun working for the district and had not had any contact with students or families.
Each of the districts said McGann had passed the necessary background checks to work in their schools.
It is not clear if there were any other reports of alarming or inappropriate behavior from students or parents after he left Donald Elementary.
Polyak said she now wonders if Donald Elementary and ISD took the complaints seriously enough – and questions if the information was passed onto other authorities such as Child Protective Services.
‘My questions are: Was he thoroughly investigated? What information did they find? Should they have terminated him? Why was he allowed to move on to other school districts? Did he have similar grooming behaviors in the schools he taught at in Oklahoma? Did his behaviors escalate prior to the murders?’ she asked.
District Judge Terra Stephenson ordered his bond to be revoked at the minutes-long hearing
A composite sketch released by Arkansas State Police prior to Gunn’s arrest
Polyak said she was ‘rattled’ when another parent texted her a link to a story this week and she opened it to see McGann’s mugshot. ‘It’s just shocking,’ she said.
For her son, who is now 13, it’s concerning to know he was around someone every day who is now accused of being a killer.
‘He’s very confused and distraught about the whole thing,’ Polyak said.
Polyak said her family is now thinking about the Brinks’ children who have been left orphans through the shocking crime. As well as their daughters, aged seven and nine, who were on the trail that day, the couple also leave behind a third daughter.
‘We feel awful for them and we wish them well and we hope that they’re able to recover from this,’ she said.
It is unclear what the suspect’s intentions and motive were that day.
There is no known connection between the suspect and the victims.
The Brinks’ daughters who witnessed the attack on their mom and dad are around the same age as the children who were in the care of McGann inside classrooms.
Both the Brinks’ family and police have praised the parents’ actions, saying they died ‘heroes protecting their little girls’.
Investigators have found no connection between Clinton and Cristen Brink and their alleged killer
McGann repeatedly insisted he didn’t want his hair shortened at the front, noting he wanted it to continue to cover his eyes. He was captured on CCTV being arrested in the hair salon
Surveillance video showed McGann was arrested Wednesday while getting a haircut at a salon in Springdale.
Police said he confessed to the murders after being presented with DNA evidence tying him to the scene.
He appeared in court in Washington County Detention Center for the first time Friday where he was charged with two counts of capital murder.
District Judge Terra Stephenson revoked his bond and ordered him to return to court for his arraignment on August 25.
If convicted, McGann faces the death penalty.
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .