A Port Gibson teacher is one of six in the state indicted for fraudulently obtaining teaching licenses. Jadice Moore, 40, was removed as the physical education teacher at Port Gibson Middle School while the Claiborne County School District conducts its own investigation.

Superintendent Elijah Brown declined to comment directly on the indictment.

“It has recently come to our attention that Mr. Jadice Moore has been indicted in a Praxis testing scam,” Brown said. “As this is a personnel matter, we are currently conducting a thorough internal investigation and we are deferring comment until that investigation is completed.”

Moore’s current employment status was unavailable, but school officials at Port Gibson Middle School confirmed he had been removed as the physical education teacher.

Other Mississippians indicted are Kimberly Taylor, 36, of Charleston, who is charged with mail fraud and is still employed at Charleston Elementary School; former Jim Hill High School teacher and coach Samuel Campbell, 38, of Jackson, who was charged with wire fraud; Columbus High School special education teacher Darcel Gardner, 34, of Columbus, who was charged with mail fraud and placed on administrative leave; Meridian High School physical education teacher and football coach Carlo McClelland, 34, of Meridian, who was charged with mail fraud and also placed on administrative leave; and Sarah Richard, 44, of Richland, who was charged with mail fraud and fraud related to identification documents.

More teachers in Tennessee and Arkansas are included in the indictments that stem from a 45-county indictment charging Clarence Mumford Sr. of Memphis with fraud and identity theft. Mumford is accused of leading a group who was paid to take the teacher certification examinations on behalf of aspiring teachers since 1995.

Moore could face up to 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines for each county if convicted.

Prosecutors said that for more than a decade, teachers paid Mumford to send someone else to take the exam in their places. Mumford charged $1,500 to $3,000 for each fraudulent exam.

Authorities estimate that possibly thousands of public school students were taught by unqualified instructors.

Mumford is facing more than 60 fraud and conspiracy charges.

One test-taker, John Bowen, 63, of Memphis, pleaded guilty in September to his role in the scheme.

Moore is a 2000 graduate of Port Gibson High School. He starred as a defensive tackle on the Blue Waves and was The Vicksburg Post’s Area-Defensive Player of the Year in 1999. He went on to play at Mississippi State under Jackie Sherill in the early 2000s.

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The Associated Press contributed to this story.