{"id":124138,"date":"2026-01-15T09:54:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T09:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/124138\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T09:54:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T09:54:12","slug":"celina-football-coach-retires-amid-sons-sex-abuse-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/124138\/","title":{"rendered":"Celina football coach retires amid son\u2019s sex abuse scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy<\/a>, and give us feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A 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.<\/p>\n

Bill Elliott, who has been employed by the district for more than three decades, was placed on administrative leave in October after his 26-year-old son Caleb, a football coach at Celina\u2019s middle school, was accused of secretly filming boys in the school\u2019s locker room and possessing child pornography. Caleb Elliott surrendered his teaching license and remains in Collin County Jail on multiple federal charges.<\/p>\n

The elder Elliott, whose team narrowly missed a state championship win last year after winning the title in 2024, has been accused in civil lawsuits, along with school officials, of ignoring and covering up a pattern of his son\u2019s 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 \u201cton of misinformation\u201d about the case and more facts will emerge as his criminal case progresses.<\/p>\n

The allegations shocked<\/a> the tight-knit football-fanatic community of Celina, a fast-growing suburb about 50 miles north of Dallas. The case is the first test of a new state law<\/a> 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. <\/p>\n

Days before the school district is expected to release a redacted version of a third-party investigation<\/a> it ordered into the matter, its board president Jeff Gravley gave a three-page statement about its review of the findings late Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Based on an investigation that included interviewing 39 witnesses, the Arlington lawyer leading it found no evidence that district officials knew about what the civil lawsuits claimed was an improper relationship Caleb Elliott had with a high school student while he was a substitute teacher there. District officials did not move the younger Elliott to Moore Middle School to cover up such wrongdoing, according to the investigation. Witnesses also had no knowledge that he allegedly placed hidden cameras in the middle school locker rooms, as outlined in the criminal affidavit, or that he forced students to do naked jumping jacks and burpees, as victims claimed in civil suits. The report said it was not evaluating the criminal charges against the younger Elliott, only district officials\u2019 knowledge of them. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe investigation found neither current employee witnesses nor employees who left<\/p>\n

the District had knowledge of alleged prior incidents of misconduct\u201d by the younger Elliott, according to the report.<\/p>\n

State Rep. Mitch Little, a Republican who represents parts of North Texas neighboring Celina as well as victims in the civil litigation against the district, posted<\/a> on X that its investigation was concluded \u201cwithout talking to a single victim or their families.\u201d<\/p>\n

The third-party investigator, Giana Ortiz, and a district spokesperson did not respond to questions about that. But the report noted that the district did not have the names of student victims. <\/p>\n

\u201cSince 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,\u201d the report said, including making \u201crepeated efforts to encourage any victim, witness, and\/or other third-party with information to come forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the district posted Bill Elliott\u2019s retirement Wednesday, state Rep. Jeff Leach, a Republican from neighboring McKinney, said <\/a>on X that \u201cyears of abuse and misconduct happened under\u201d the elder Elliott\u2019s watch.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Board is allowing him to resign instead of firing him. Not just no \u2014 but hell no!\u201d Leach said. \u201cAs is so often the case \u2013 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gravley, the board president, did not immediately respond to questions about that allegation. Neither did the lawyer representing Caleb Elliott, who has known the family for years and used to be the father and son\u2019s neighbor.<\/p>\n

In his statement, the elder Elliott said that during more than three decades at the district, he was \u201cblessed with the opportunity to create lasting memories and build meaningful relationships that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.\u201d <\/p>\n

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, you can receive confidential help by calling the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network\u2019s 24\/7 toll-free support line at 800-656-4673 or visiting its\u00a0online hotline<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy, and give…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[22657,53771,5144,27,29,28,6748],"class_list":{"0":"post-124138","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-celina","9":"tag-jeff-leach","10":"tag-mitch-little","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-texas-headlines","13":"tag-texas-news","14":"tag-well-b-homepage"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}