Dallas school district sued for allowing 25-year-old basketball star to enroll and abuse classmate
Dallas Independent School District is being sued by the mother of a 14-year old former student who says her daughter was sexually abused by a 25-year-old man the school allowed to enroll at a local high school.
The mother of a teenage girl has sued the Dallas Independent School District after it allowed a 25-year-old man to enroll as a student and basketball star. He then went on to be accused of sexually abusing the young girl with reports that he kissed and fondled her breasts.
In 2017, Sidney Gilstrap-Portley enrolled at Hillcrest High School by pretending to be a homeless, 17-year-old sophomore who was a Hurricane Harvey evacuee named Rashun Richardson, according to The Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Almost immediately, Gilstrap-Portley joined the basketball team and became a star player.
Gilstrap-Portley then began a sexual relationship with one of his classmates, a 14-year-old girl at the high school, according to KXAS.
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The case was made public almost a year ago, but the girl’s mother has now filed a lawsuit accusing Gilstrap-Portley of grooming her daughter for a sexual relationship and slamming the Dallas Independent School District for failing to protect her child, said the woman’s attorney, Mai Mullen Milton, to McClatchy News.
“It should be noted that my client Jan Doe continues to suffer the ill effects of what occurred to her due to the acts of Mr. Gilstrap-Portley and the nonfeasance (failure to act) of those in (Dallas ISD),” Milton told the news service in an email.
The lawsuit also blames school officials for ignoring “red flags” and not adhering to the protocol instituted by the University Interscholastic League, the rule-making organization for high school sports in Texas. It requires school districts to conduct a home visit to confirm the residency of any transfer student wishing to join a school athletic team. However, federal law doesn’t ask those who are homeless because of a natural disaster to provide residency documents.
“Had this been done (school officials) would have seen (Gilstrap-Portley) was not homeless and was living with his fiancé and their child, and he was not Rashun Richardson as he claimed,” the lawsuit says, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
“Due to (the defendants) interest in having an unstoppable basketball team, which would likely lead to more notoriety, and more monetary grants to the school, (they) showed deliberate indifference when they failed to protect the interest and safety of its students,” the lawsuit adds.
A spokesperson for the school district didn’t respond to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s request for comment.
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The identity of Gilstrap-Portley was ultimately discovered after a coach from the high school he actually attended several years ago recognized him at a basketball tournament. He was subsequently arrested and pled guilty to three charges of tampering with government records and indecency by exposure, KTVT reported. He was not sentenced to jail time but must register as a sex offender.
The teenage victim has since transferred to another school out of humiliation and to avoid being “recognized and reminded of what the defendants allowed to happen to her,” her mom’s attorney said in court documents.
