Celina ISD’s high school football coach announced his retirement soon after the district shared an independent investigator found no evidence supporting allegations the district was aware of a former teacher’s sexual misconduct.
Bill Elliott, the district’s athletic director and high school football coach, was placed on leave while an independent investigator looked into sexual misconduct allegations against his son, Caleb Elliott. The team won the state football championship in 2024.
The Celina ISD school board trustees had a personnel matter related to Caleb Elliott, who resigned from his position as the eighth-grade football coach at Moore Middle School after he was arrested, on the agenda for a closed meeting on Monday but didn’t take action on it. The next morning, the district sent an emailed statement that Bill Elliott was retiring.
“Over the past 33 years, I have been blessed with the opportunity to create lasting memories and build meaningful relationships that I will carry with me for the rest of my life,” Bill Elliott said in the statement. “I am deeply grateful to Celina ISD for the support and trust extended to me throughout my career, and I wish the district continued success in all its future endeavors.”
Caleb Elliott is facing federal and state charges for allegedly recording students changing in the boys locker room. He’s also facing multiple lawsuits — and thanks to a new state law that went into effect September 1, so is Celina ISD, the school district that employed Elliott.
The lawsuits accuse Celina ISD of multiple cover ups of Caleb Elliott’s misconduct, including allegations that the district moved Caleb Elliott from the high school to the middle school after he had an inappropriate relationship with a male student. The district said in a statement the independent investigator it hired to look into the allegations, attorney Giana Ortiz, found no evidence of that. Elliott’s attorney, Gregg M. Gibbs, told The Texas Tribune the relationship with the former student began after he graduated when he was 19. Gibbs hasn’t answered multiple requests for comment from KERA.
The district also denies allegations that Caleb Elliott placed cameras in the locker room, something the Celina Police Department also said it found no evidence of in its investigation, which was concluded in November.
“No witness had knowledge of alleged concerns about Caleb Elliott’s presence and/or conduct in the locker room before October 2, 2025,” the district’s statement said.
Attorneys for 17 of the families suing Caleb Elliott and the district over the sexual misconduct allegations told reporters at a press conference last month another football coach at Moore Middle School confronted Caleb Elliott about his behavior before a student reported it to the school principal in October. The district said its independent investigator found no evidence of the confrontation.
Quentin Brogdon, one of the attorneys representing those 17 alleged victims, said at the press conference Celina ISD is deflecting blame onto Caleb Elliott.
“The district's credibility on what it knew about this sexual predator and when it knew it is like a carton of sour milk,” Brogdon said. “You don't have to take more than the first sip of it to know the entire carton is bad.”
A redacted report of the investigations’ findings is expected to be shared with the public by the end of this week.
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