A groundbreaking lawsuit in Collin County over a teacher’s alleged sexual misconduct under a new state law could cost a local school district millions of dollars — and many other Texas school districts could soon be facing the same financial peril as more alleged victims seek accountability.
Caleb Elliott, the former middle school football coach at Moore Middle School in Celina, 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.
Texas joined a few other states, including California and New York, when it passed a law September 1 that says school districts that are grossly negligent or reckless in hiring, supervising or employing someone who commits sexual misconduct against a student or fail to report suspected child abuse can be held liable for that employee’s actions in civil court.
Claims have skyrocketed in other states with similar laws.
Lawmakers and advocates for survivors of abuse say holding schools liable for covering up sexual misconduct is much-needed accountability, allowing more victims to get justice and restitution.
But school districts warn the potentially staggering financial cost of such lawsuits — and the accountability they may bring — also could reduce the resources available to educate students.
Systemic Abuse
Tami Brown Rodriguez, an advocate with Jaco Booyens Ministries, an anti-human trafficking organization based in Arlington, said 20 other states were considering legislation similar to the Texas law when she testified in favor of Texas House Bill 4623 during a Texas House committee hearing in April.
“Schools are shielded from accountability,” Brown Rodriguez said. “Texas law currently grants government immunity to district and staff even when they failed to report or act on abuse. This is not justice. This is abandonment.”
Texas House Member Mitch Little, a North Texas Republican, wrote Texas House Bill 4623. He warned Texas House members during a committee hearing for the bill in April that sexual abuse in Texas schools is at crisis level. Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath told the State Board of Education that same day the state had 886 reported allegations of solicitation or sexual misconduct involving students in fiscal year 2024.
Callie McDonald, who was testified that she was sexually abused at school, said during the committee hearing for the bill abuse is more prevalent than people realize.
“Everything's bigger in Texas, and that includes our pedophile and school problems,” McDonald said. “It's not something to be proud of, but it is the truth, and it needs to be put on the table and fixed.”
Before the new law, school districts were mostly shielded from sexual misconduct lawsuits under government immunity, which Little said left families with few options to pursue accountability when school districts covered up the abuse or even blamed the victims. Unlike the perpetrator, school districts aren’t likely to face criminal charges.
"It kind of became a cul-de-sac where families could not get any type of relief,” he said.
A report from the California Association of Joint Powers Authorities found that as of Sep. 30, 2024, claims against public entities tripled in 2018-2018 and 2023-2024. California passed a law in 2019 increasing the statute of limitations for abuse claims, making it easier to sue schools and school districts. New York, which passed a similar law that same year, also saw reports surge. The Texas statute only applies to cases that happened after the law went into effect last September.
It’s not unusual for victims to come forward after a new law is passed, said Sandi Johnson, senior legislative policy counsel for RAINN, the Rape Abuse and Incest National Network, which advocates for survivors of sexual violence.
"There's a reason why they're all coming forward after this law passed, and that's because this has been going on for years, for decades,” Johnson said.
Greater Accountability
A child is sexually assaulted every nine minutes according to RAINN. But most perpetrators won’t face jail time. RAINN’s calculation using data from the FBI’s National Incident Based Reporting System found that only 25 perpetrators are incarcerated for every 1,000 sexual assaults.
Moving forward with criminal prosecution for sexual abuse or misconduct is ultimately a district attorney’s decision, not the victim’s, Johnson said. Access to the civil courts, she said, gives survivors more agency and increases accountability.
“If you want to hold the school district accountable or the principal accountable for not doing their duty to protect victims, they're not subject to criminal liability, but they are subject to civil liability,” Johnson said.
Civil cases have a lower burden of proof than criminal cases, said Quentin Brogdon, one of the attorneys suing Celina ISD over Caleb Elliott’s alleged sexual misconduct. Now, victims may be able to pursue a civil suit when a prosecutor says there’s insufficient evidence to move forward criminally, he said.
A conviction in a criminal case requires proof "beyond a reasonable doubt." The standard for a judgment in a civil case is a “preponderance of evidence.”
Allowing victims to sue school districts also opens the door to discovery, a legal process where attorneys can gather evidence to build their case. Brogdon, a former prosecutor, said civil litigators can uncover information for their clients, such as who enabled the abuse or looked the other way.
“Those issues are not necessarily the issues that are front and center for the criminal investigating authorities,” he said. “They tend to focus much more on do we have enough evidence to prosecute the criminal for at least some of his wrongdoing?”
Brogdon and the other attorneys who are suing Celina ISD say they’re still investigating Caleb Elliott’s alleged sexual misconduct even though the Celina Police Department concluded its investigation.
The Celina Police Department ended its investigation prematurely, said Little, who’s suing Celina ISD and Caleb Elliott on behalf of 17 families who allege their children were victims, alongside Brogdon and another attorney, Jack Walker.
"Celina should be telling us how it all happened and giving us the entire story, not forcing these victims to dig it out,” Little said.
The Celina Police Department declined to comment when KERA reached out about Little and the other attorneys’ comments about the department’s investigation. Elliott’s attorney also didn’t respond to phone calls asking for comment before the publication of this story.
Celina ISD hired a third-party investigator to look into the allegations. The school board trustees reviewed the findings of that investigation during a closed meeting on Monday and is scheduled to meet again next week.
The district said in a statement shared with KERA it plans to share a redacted version of the investigation's findings publicly by the end of the week.
"Our District remains steadfast in our commitment to the safety, trust, and well-being of every student," the statement said. "Celina is a community that faces challenges together, supports one another, and grows stronger through open communication and care. Our commitment to these priorities will not change."
The price of accountability
Bill Elliott, the Celina high school football coach and Caleb Elliott’s father, said at a Celina ISD school board meeting last year that he loves his son and that Caleb Elliott was the only one at fault for what happened.
"One person is to blame for all of this, one person," Elliott said. "He made a bad decision, a bad choice, and he's in a dark, dark place. And he will serve the justice that will be served to him.”
Attorneys for the alleged victims say Bill Elliott and the school district may be culpable. The district moved Caleb Elliott to the middle school after he had an inappropriate relationship with a student while working at the high school according to the lawsuits.
If the lawsuits succeed, Celina ISD could end up owing the plaintiffs up to about $15.5 million in restitution — the Texas law limits damages to $500,000 per claimant. Little said most school organizations fought against the bill behind the scenes when it was moving through the legislature.
“The liability is potentially massive,” he said. “I mean, the Celina ISD case is kind of the poster boy case for that.”
The district’s operating expenses for the adopted budget for the 2025-2026 school year is $104,139,746 according to school budget documents — the same amount as Celina ISD’s total revenue for that school year.
Public schools in Texas get most of their funding from local property taxes. The taxpayers, not the school administrators or the district, are the ones who will pay the bill for sexual misconduct lawsuits, Monty Exter, the director of government relations for the Association of Texas Professional Educators, said at the committee hearing for the bill last April.
“We are certainly not in disagreement that we should find a way as a state, whether they are from a school situation or any other situation to help compensate victims of these crimes,” Exter said. “But in the way that this bill does it, it is taking money that is given by the taxpayer for other school children.”
School districts facing liability could go into debt or raise taxes, said Mark Weber, who teaches education policy at Rutgers University. But Weber said most will cut programs and services.
“It's a very hard sell to get taxpayers to come up with more money just to settle lawsuits,” he said. “It's much easier sell to say that you're gonna cut programs that, in many cases, are necessary for children to have an adequate education.”
A January 2025 report commissioned by the California state legislature found that since its school accountability law was passed in 2019, local education agencies had faced an estimated $2 to $3 billion in sexual assault claims. Insurance premiums also went up according to the report.
Many smaller California school districts pooled their liability coverage to lower insurance costs, but Weber said that can be risky. If one district is sued, the others will end up sharing the cost and paying for higher insurance premiums — even though the abuse didn’t occur in their district.
Victims of sexual abuse and misconduct can also suffer a financial loss. Medical bills, lost wages from being unable to work and mental health care can cost survivors about $122,000 over their lifetime, said Johnson, the attorney for RAINN.
The financial impact on school districts, Little said, isn’t his main concern — it’s the children who are harmed.
"What's a child's life worth? I think we need to wrestle with that question,” he said. “Are we more concerned about everyone's salaries and systems and having new computers and making sure that everything looks nice? Are we more concerned about making sure that kids are safe? I'm not so much concerned about the impact on finances, and I don't think any reasonable person should be.”
National Trend
Little said Texans are tired of news stories about teachers and coaches abusing their students dominating the headlines.
“We don't want to see these stories anymore,” Little said. “And if this leads to fewer of those stories, then I hope other states will follow our lead,” he said.
The new law takes away the incentive to overlook abuse or misconduct by creating a litigation risk, the North Texas Republican said. And when school districts take the appropriate steps to protect children, there is no threat to school finances, said Johnson, the attorney for RAINN. She said the costs states like California are seeing are a result of inaction.
Sexual misconduct and abuse in schools is a serious issue, Weber said. But he’s unsure if leaving it up to the courts is the most effective solution.
“There's got to be a larger plan,” Weber said. “And frankly, there's got to be resources to implement that plan. So I don't know that this is going to be enough to get sexual misconduct to stop in schools.”
With more states passing and considering similar legislation, school districts across the nation will soon have to grapple with the potential liability and its financial costs, an impact Weber called unpredictable. But for survivors of sexual abuse and misconduct at the hands of an educator, Johnson said the law opens doors that can lead to healing.
“To those states who haven't passed these laws yet, it's happening in your state,” she said. “You might not be hearing about it because the victims aren't aware that they could have access, and you need to do everything in your power to provide survivors access as much as you can.”
Got a tip? Email Caroline Love at clove@kera.org.
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