A much anticipated investigative report into whether Celina Independent School District covered up a coach’s sexual misconduct with students reveals an athletics department in disarray and plagued by conflicts of interest under the leadership of longtime Head Football Coach and Athletic Director Bill Elliott.
Bill Elliott is the father of the suspect, 26-year-old Caleb Elliott, who is in jail awaiting trial on multiple charges related to his illicit recordings of undressed students in the middle school boys’ locker room.
The 85-page report, released after 5:00 p.m. on Friday, focuses on whether Celina ISD administrators hushed up alleged past misconduct by Caleb prior to his initial arrest on October 3.
The redacted report states that the third-party investigation commissioned by the district “found no evidence” of a coverup and concludes that allegations regarding district officials’ knowledge of Caleb Elliott’s sexual misconduct prior to his arrest were “not sustained” by statements from the school employees interviewed.
But the report points to “systemic issues and failures” in the athletics department and Moore Middle School.
Both Bill Elliott and Moore Middle School Principal Allison Ginn had been on administrative leave pending completion of the investigation, as the two people with direct responsibility for hiring and supervising Caleb Elliott. Both have now quit the district.
A day after school board trustees announced they would release a redacted copy of the sex crimes scandal report, Celina ISD announced that Bill Elliott was retiring and Ginn had resigned.
The Celina Way
Caleb Elliott was hired in 2023—at Bill Elliott’s urging—as a 6th grade teacher and 8th grade coach at Moore Middle School after working seasonally for the district since 2017.
According to one witness, Bill Elliott told Ginn she had to hire Caleb, that it was the “Celina Way.”
The statement points to a larger issue highlighted in the report, that “familial relationships” created the perception that the athletics department and the Elliotts received special treatment, were “allowed to do things that others in the district are not” (such as hire family members), and were not held accountable.
“Whether Bill Elliott’s family members are receiving special treatment in evaluations or not, these are examples of the perceptions that can arise from the family relationships and which reflect poorly on Athletics, and the District as a whole,” the report states.
In addition to nepotism—Bill Elliott hired both of his sons, Caleb and Nathan, as coaches—the report notes conflicts of interest with the Quarterback Club and Bobcat Moms. Trustees including Jeff Gravley and Jennifer Driver have close ties to the booster club-type groups, and some members have fiercely defended Bill Elliott.
The report also highlights the perception that several board members with longtime close, personal relationships with Bill Elliott would not support a “difficult decision” involving the popular coach.
Bill Elliott began coaching for Celina ISD in 1998. He was named Athletic Director in 2012 and given a three-year administrator contract in 2013. However, the report notes that Bill does not hold an administrator’s certification, which is customary for someone in his position and provides training in management skills the job requires.
The investigation also revealed financial irregularities in Elliott’s athletics department.
In conjunction with the Celina Police Department, the investigator found bank statements for an account in the name of Celina FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes), which another witness said they did not have access to.
Investigators also discovered “a large amount of cash” in a safe in Bill Elliott’s office. The money allegedly came from doctors who performed physicals on student athletes at a cost of $20, paid for in cash, who then “donated” the cash back to the athletics department.
Regarding Bill Elliott, the report concludes that “the placement of current or former MMS student athletes who are alleged victims of Caleb Elliott’s misconduct into CHS athletic programs overseen by Bill Elliott raises significant concerns regarding public trust and the District’s ability to provide a learning and athletic environment free from even a perception of undue influence or compromised oversight.”
The report also reveals Ginn’s frustration at being pushed to hire Caleb despite his perceived immaturity and failure to pass the teacher certification exam multiple times, and with the athletics department in general.
“Complete and utter bs; Every blow from Athletics makes me regret my decision to come to Celina; It’s not fun. It’s not – human. It just doesn’t seem real,” she wrote in a text a few months after moving to the district from Frisco ISD in 2023.
Yet Ginn did hire Elliott and even used herself as his first reference.
According to the report, “Board members agree that a parent should not pressure a principal to hire their own child; and if Bill Elliott did that, it would be inappropriate.”
Trustees seemed unaware that this had already occurred, and also unaware that many Moore Middle School employees, including Caleb Elliott, were not reviewed annually.
“Board members assume that campus administrators are using annual evaluations in order to make informed contract renewal recommendations,” the report states.
An executive summary describes the scope of the investigation and concludes:
“Although the issues and/or failures identified within Athletics and MMS warrant attention and correction by the District, it is important to note that… none of these failures appear to have caused the situation giving rise to Caleb Elliott’s arrests.”
That finding is important as Celina ISD is facing seven civil lawsuits from families of students targeted by Caleb Elliott, alleging school administrators were not only aware of Elliott’s prior predation of young boys, but deliberately brushed it under the rug to protect the reputation of Celina ISD’s famed football program.
Investigation and Report
Celina ISD Superintendent Tom Maglisceau hired attorney Giana Ortiz in October to conduct an “independent third-party investigation” into district hiring practices and any potential criminal actions by other district employees regarding Caleb Elliott.
The investigative report, dated December 31, 2025, opens with Ortiz declaring Celina ISD a “wonderful” district.
Notably, the report does not include input from any of the affected students or their families, although they were encouraged to come forward, according to a January 13 statement from School Board President Jeff Gravley.
Ortiz states that she interviewed 39 current or former district employees. She notes that many raised concerns about retaliation, as they reported directly or indirectly to Bill Elliott, Ginn, or both, so witnesses are not identified by name. Maglisceau waived his right to have his name and identifying information withheld.
In addition, portions of the report are redacted in accordance with a state law making any document evaluating the performance of a teacher or administrator confidential.
Witnesses included Caleb Elliott’s boyfriend, a 2024 Celina High School graduate who Caleb taught in the 2022-23 school year when he was substitute teaching at the high school, according to the report.
Parents have alleged that Caleb engaged in an improper relationship with the boy while he was still a student, and that the district hushed it up. According to the report, he told Ortiz he didn’t recall meeting Caleb in school and the two did not begin dating until the summer of 2024, just after he graduated.
At the beginning of the 2025-26 school year, Ginn hired Caleb’s boyfriend to work at Moore Middle School, but after Caleb’s arrest he disappeared from the staff directory.
“By all accounts, the news of Caleb Elliott’s sexual orientation became the talk of the town in the fall of 2024,” according to the report. After that, Ginn said Caleb told her that “Bill Elliott said he was no longer welcome on the sidelines.”
“Multiple witnesses described an awareness or impression that Caleb Elliott’s homosexuality caused difficulties in the Elliott family during this time—and specifically between Bill and Caleb Elliott.”
“Witness 6” (presumably MMS Boy’s Athletic Coordinator Troy Davis) stated that in October 2024, he decided to switch Caleb’s after-practice duty from the MMS locker room to the cafeteria because some board members “were upset about Caleb coming out as gay,” but added Caleb wasn’t “banned” from the locker room.
Another witness said they heard someone whose name is redacted state that Caleb “is not or should not ‘be allowed’ in the locker room because they learned he was gay.”
Other red-flag behaviors, such as Caleb selling cologne to students and providing use of an Apple Watch as a “reward,” were acknowledged but brushed off as “dumb” and not “grooming” behavior.
Witnesses said Caleb was generally “popular with students” and “always positive, never weird.” Some said Caleb had stated that he didn’t like teaching and intended to go to fire school.
None of the employees interviewed professed any knowledge of other specific allegations, such as Caleb placing cameras in the locker room during the 2024-25 school year—although two of the locker room images found by federal investigators on Caleb’s phone are dated April 2025.
No witness claimed any knowledge of Caleb Elliott making students do exercises like jumping jacks or burpees while naked, as is alleged in lawsuits against the district and Elliott.
However, witnesses stated that coaches were often too busy to be monitoring Caleb’s interactions with students in the locker room.
The report notes that early on the morning of October 3—the date Caleb Elliott was first arrested—Witness 6 texted the entire coaching staff, “Coaches, DO NOT have your phones out in the locker room.”
Later that day, the Celina Police Department executed a search warrant on the middle school campus, then arrested Caleb Elliott on an invasive visual recording charge. He was rearrested twice more on additional state charges and also indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of producing child sexual abuse material.
During an October school board meeting following Caleb’s second arrest, Bill Elliott apologized but said he wanted to keep coaching the high school football team, which had hopes of winning another state championship in 2025.
But the results of the investigation as revealed (and redacted) in the report, along with the community’s loss of trust, made Bill’s exit from the district inevitable.
Several pages of the report documenting “hostile work environment” complaints are completely redacted. Large sections of the report that document the “systemic issues and failures” in both the athletics department and Moore Middle School are also heavily redacted.
But Ortiz makes a point of noting once again that “none of these failures appear to have caused the situation giving rise to Caleb Elliott’s arrests.”
Still, from the witness statements that the public was allowed to see, it’s clear that too many Celina ISD officials didn’t know—or turned a blind eye to—what was going on in Bill Elliott’s athletics department and the Moore Middle School locker room.
Responses and Recommendations
“The investigator’s heavily-redacted report paints a picture of a school district in disarray and lacking institutional control,” responded State Rep. Mitch Little (R–Lewisville), an attorney who is representing 17 Moore Middle School students targeted by Caleb Elliott.
On top of allowing the head football coach to browbeat the principal to hiring his unqualified and immature son, the Elliott family’s influence apparently led to the hiring of Caleb Elliot’s lover as well. This is “The Celina Way,” as Coach Elliott put it. The report makes it clear that, despite earlier admonitions that Caleb Elliott should not be allowed in the locker room because he was gay, he was directly assigned locker room supervision for the 2025-2026 school year.
The report is rife with redactions about failures by administration to adhere to its own policies and provide reviews and evaluations of its employees, including Caleb Elliott. As one example, there are over four pages of hostile work environment findings in this report—all redacted.
“The people of Celina deserve to know the full scope of these failures, and we intend to expose them,” concluded Little.
Ortiz’s report concluded that alleged board governance issues were not sustained by her investigation but included several recommended policy changes for trustees to consider.
- Develop and enforce a policy for use of “sensitive areas” like locker rooms
- Develop and follow a consistent policy for handling complaints against staff members
- Reaffirm and widely communicate clear reporting methods for concerns about employee misconduct
- Continue to train all employees on their obligations to report potential misconduct
- Communicate districtwide that student safety and ethical conduct take precedence over loyalty, reputation, or program success, and that the District will act promptly and impartially when concerns arise.
Celina ISD’s next school board meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, January 20, at 6:00 p.m., at Moore Middle School.
The agenda states that trustees will discuss “pending investigations involving Caleb Elliott” and related “administrative matters” during closed session.
Also on the agenda is voting on “matters considered in closed session… to take action necessary regarding personnel.” It’s unclear if trustees will vote on any personnel matters now that Allison Ginn and Bill Elliott are gone.
Texas Scorecard’s previous coverage of the Celina ISD sexual misconduct scandal can be found here.
