Bill Elliott, the beloved athletic director and head football coach at Celina Independent School District, announced his retirement Wednesday as district officials cleared him and other employees of wrongdoing in a sexual abuse case involving his son.
As reported by The Texas Tribune, Elliott had been employed by the district for more than three decades. He was placed on administrative leave in October after his 26-year-old son Caleb, a football coach at Celina’s middle school, was accused of secretly filming boys in the school’s locker room and possessing child pornography. Caleb Elliott surrendered his teaching license and remains in Collin County Jail on multiple federal charges.
Related: High School Coach Apologizes for Son's Recording of Boys in Middle School Locker Room
Under the elder Elliott, Celina High School nearly repeated as state champions last season. The coach and other school officials were accused in civil lawsuits of ignoring and covering up a pattern of Caleb Elliott's concerning behavior that lawyers and families said should have spurred earlier intervention. The father does not face criminal accusations. An attorney for his son has said that there is a “ton of misinformation” about the case and more facts will emerge as his criminal case progresses, Lomi Kriel of the Tribune reported.
"The allegations shocked the tight-knit football-fanatic community of Celina, a fast-growing suburb about 50 miles north of Dallas," Kriel wrote. "The case is the first test of a new state law passed this year that allows families to sue school districts during sexual abuse allegations in which educators are accused of negligence. Usually government entities are shielded from most civil litigation."
Related: Families Sue School District, Claiming It Enabled Ex-Coach's Alleged Sexual Misconduct
Per Kriel's reporting, days before the school district is expected to release a redacted version of a third-party investigation it ordered into the matter, its board president Jeff Gravley gave a three-page statement about its review of the findings late Tuesday.
“The investigation found neither current employee witnesses nor employees who left the District had knowledge of alleged prior incidents of misconduct” by the younger Elliott, according to the report.
State representative Mitch Little, a Republican who represents parts of North Texas neighboring Celina as well as victims in the civil litigation against the district, posted on X that its investigation was concluded “without talking to a single victim or their families" among the 39 witnesses who were reportedly interviewed by third-party investigator Giana Ortiz, and Arlington-based lawyer.
“Since the District still does not have the identities of the students involved, it has erred on the side of caution by providing the required notification to parents as a group through various outlets,” the report said, including making “repeated efforts to encourage any victim, witness, and/or other third-party with information to come forward.”
After the district posted Bill Elliott’s retirement Wednesday, state representative Jeff Leach, a Republican from neighboring McKinney, said on X that “years of abuse and misconduct happened under” the elder Elliott’s watch.
“The Board is allowing him to resign instead of firing him. Not just no — but hell no!” Leach said, as reported by the Tribune. “As is so often the case – the institutional abuse and cover up is sometimes worse than the abuse itself. And it cannot be allowed to stand. The entire Celina ISD School Board needs to go. And now.”
Per Kriel's reporting, Bill Elliott said in his statement that during more than three decades at the district, he was “blessed with the opportunity to create lasting memories and build meaningful relationships that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.”
