AUSTIN, Texas - Texas has fired its newly hired special education director after learning that she had been accused in a lawsuit of trying to hush up the sexual abuse of a student at a small Oregon school district where she'd worked previously.

Laurie Kash had started with the Texas Education Agency on Aug. 15. A lawsuit accused her of ordering several employees to say nothing about the sexual abuse allegations while special education director at the Rainier School District, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) north of Portland, Oregon.

A TEA statement said, "These allegations were not disclosed during the hiring process, and if these serious allegations had been disclosed, she would not have been hired."

Kash's attorney Bill Aleshire said Kash was frank about the lawsuit, the allegations of which she denies.