A fourth lawsuit has been filed against Celina Independent School District over the alleged coverup of coach Caleb Elliott’s illicit recordings in the middle school boys’ locker room, which date back to the last school year and continued up until Elliott’s arrest in October.
Families of 17 Moore Middle School students are plaintiffs in the latest lawsuit, bringing the total number suing the district and Elliott to 34 of the 39 students identified as targets of the now-former coach’s predatory behavior.
“It appears the district placed a higher priority on advancing its championship football program than it placed on protecting the vulnerable young students entrusted to the district,” the new lawsuit alleges.
William Caleb Elliott is the 26-year-old son of Celina ISD’s “legendary” Head Football Coach and Athletic Director Bill Elliott.
The new lawsuit makes similar claims as the previous three suits, alleging that district officials knew Caleb Elliott posed a risk to young male students but continued to employ him at the middle school and allow him “unfettered access” to the boys’ locker room, demonstrating a “conscious disregard for student safety” that enabled Elliott to prey on children in his charge.
“The combination of Elliott’s sexual attraction to males, his history of an inappropriate relationship with a male student, and his unsupervised access to vulnerable young boys in intimate settings created an obvious and foreseeable risk,” the petition states. “Any district exercising reasonable care would have implemented strict supervision protocols and safeguards.”
“The district acted only after its hand was forced by families of Celina students, law enforcement authorities, and the media,” the lawsuit adds.
In the wake of the scandal, Caleb Elliott was allowed to resign in exchange for permanently surrendering his teaching certificate.
Plaintiffs in all four groundbreaking lawsuits are seeking monetary damages under a new law, passed this year as House Bill 4623, which waives governmental immunity for public schools and abolishes official immunity for school employees when districts are grossly negligent in enabling their employees to sexually abuse students.
Celina ISD has denied the allegations and claims it can still assert governmental immunity because the alleged acts or omissions occurred before the new law took effect on September 1.
One of the attorneys representing families in the latest lawsuit, State Rep. Mitch Little (R–Lewisville), authored HB 4623.
During a press conference Wednesday announcing the new suit, Little revealed disturbing new details in the case.
Little said federal authorities have indicted Caleb Elliott for transfer of materials in interstate commerce, possibly via Snapchat, confirming one of the families’ worst fears.
He also said his legal team has “very good evidence” from “multiple witnesses” that there was a “confrontation between Caleb Elliott and another coach at Moore Middle School in connection with previous attempts to record and photograph children in the locker room.”
Witnesses say Elliott was then “banned” from the boys’ locker room while students were present, but the lawsuit alleges the district “took no real steps to enforce the ban.”
Coach Troy Davis is the Moore Middle School boys athletic coordinator, but he was not identified as the coach who confronted Elliott.
Little said the confrontation occurred “long before the events that are the subject of this case,” confirming that other Celina ISD employees were aware of Elliott’s predatory behavior prior to the beginning of the current school year.
Locker room images of students that investigators found in Caleb Elliott’s cell phone are dated from April 8, 2024, to October 2, 2025. Elliott was first arrested on October 3.
Little noted that Celina ISD’s Athletic Department was “increasingly siloed and functioning as a fiefdom in some ways, not accountable to administration or the school district itself.”
I think the big question that we are going to answer in this lawsuit is, “What were the institutional controls that were placed on the Athletic Department, and did the school district have sufficient oversight over the Athletic Department to keep children safe?” At some point, success starts to create power, and power tends to work unto itself. And I’m afraid or concerned that that’s what happened here.
Plaintiffs’ attorney Jack Walker said during Wednesday’s press conference that he believes their investigation will likely show more victims than the 39 currently known.
“This went on much longer than was initially thought,” said Walker. “I can promise you that confrontation was not likely the first time that he had done it. It was the first time he got caught doing it.”
Walker called the scandal “a systemic failure by the school district to stop a known predator” and a “complete breach” of Celina ISD families’ trust.
“What we had over the years is a culture that’s built around immunity, and so there has been no accountability, no way to hold them accountable,” said Walker, likening Caleb Elliott to “the son of the king.”
Walker said the new law allows families to hold school districts and employees accountable “for what we know is egregious conduct and missed red flags all along the way.”
“What happened to these vulnerable young boys is every parent’s worst nightmare, and the tragedy is it just didn’t have to happen,” added attorney Quentin Brogdon during Wednesday’s press conference, calling Elliott’s scandalous behavior “preventable, obvious, and predictable.”
Little said he believes the Celina Police Department “stopped their investigation where they wanted to,” noting that it “did not and could not have received all of the responses to subpoenas that are outstanding right now.”
“The problem is we’ve never fully fleshed out the question of who was aware of this person’s conduct or how was he confronted and when, and this is work for the police,” said Little.
Celina Police Chief John Cullison announced on November 18 that the department had completed “the active stage of the criminal investigation” but said his team was eagerly awaiting any new evidence arising from the civil litigation.
“The criminal investigation is never truly finished in a matter such as this,” said Cullison. “We remain vigilant and ready to act on any new information that comes to light.”
Little also noted that Celina ISD “still has not announced that they will release the results of their supposed third-party investigation.”
“I call upon Celina ISD, and I call upon the families of Celina ISD to demand the release of their third-party investigation and not hide behind privilege, so that we can have a full and complete public accounting of what happened here,” said Little.
Celina ISD Communications responded with a press statement indicating that the district “has every intention” of ensuring that “all claims related to any potential criminal action by Caleb Elliott or any other past or current employee of Celina ISD” are investigated.
“Contrary to the statements made at the press conference today, it remains the District’s intention to be thorough and transparent throughout this process with the independent third-party investigator, Celina PD and/or other law enforcement, the Texas Education Agency, and the Celina ISD community,” the statement read.
Little said the case will now proceed through discovery, and he expects that all four cases will be cooperative. “There’s no reason the parents shouldn’t band together in this community to get results.”
All four cases are pending in the 471st District Court in Collin County, presided over by Judge Bryan Gantt.
The lawsuits are the least of Caleb Elliott’s troubles.
Elliott is facing state criminal charges of invasive visual recording, possession of child sexual abuse material, and two counts of sexual performance by a child for making students perform exercises in the locker room while undressed.
He was also indicted by a federal grand jury on eight felony counts of producing child sexual abuse material, which carry a statutory minimum sentence of 15 years and up to 30 years in federal prison.
For now, Elliott remains in the Collin County Jail. A federal judge ordered that he be detained pending trial. A pre-trial conference is set for January 9, 2026. Any plea agreement or request for continuance is due by December 15.
Bill Elliott was placed on paid administrative leave effective October 24 pending completion of the district’s third-party investigation, according to Superintendent Tom Maglisceau.
Several Bobcat booster club members are urging Celina ISD to reinstate Bill Elliott before the state football championships, claiming that Celina PD and the Texas attorney general’s office have “cleared” the head coach of any wrongdoing. If the currently undefeated Celina Bobcats make it to the championship game, the team would compete on December 19.
Outside the booster club bubble, the scandal has sparked statewide outrage.
Citing “gross dereliction in protecting children from physical and sexual abuse in Texas schools, including inadequate responses to scandals like Celina ISD,” members of the State Republican Executive Committee will consider a resolution at their December meeting calling for Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath’s immediate resignation or removal.
The resolution is being brought forward by Committeeman Brandon Hodges (SD-31), who also serves as school board president of Midland ISD. Committeewoman Christin Bentley (SD-1) said she intends to support the resolution.
“The sexual abuse crisis in Texas public schools is a result of systemic failures that go all the way to the top,” Bentley posted to social media. “Texas children deserve real protection and real accountability.”
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