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    Texas Schools Behaving Badly

    East Texas school district finally pays up for bullying lesbian student athlete

    Claire St. Amant
    Feb 28, 2014 | 9:01 am

    An East Texas school district has finally settled a lawsuit filed by a former student who was forced to reveal her sexual identity in 2009.

    Skye Wyatt was a 16-year-old sophomore at Kilgore High School when her softball coaches confronted her in the locker room and wouldn't let her leave until she admitted she was a lesbian. They then called her mother, Barbara Wyatt, and revealed Skye's sexual orientation without her consent.

    Skye was kicked off the softball team immediately and later barred from playing volleyball as well. After Barbara Wyatt filed a lawsuit against the school district in 2010, its attorneys rounded up a handful of Skye's classmates to sign sworn affidavits discrediting her character and integrity.

    "It’s the worst bullying I’ve ever seen," says attorney Paula Hinton, who represented student Skye Wyatt.

    "It’s the worst bullying I’ve ever seen," says attorney Paula Hinton, who represented Skye pro bono along with Jennifer Doan and the Texas Civil Rights Project.

    "Not only has this girl been outed to her mother and thrown off the softball team where she was a great player, the school organizes this 'mean girls style attack' and submits these horrible affidavits."

    Hinton says that Skye was singled out about her sexuality because she found out that head softball coach Cassandra Newell was a lesbian and had discussed this with another teammate in a note. The lawsuit named Kilgore ISD, Newell and assistant softball coach Rhonda Fletcher, who participated in the forced locker room confession.

    "Coaches Fletcher and Newell intentionally, and with deliberate, conscious, and callous indifference to Miss Wyatt’s constitutional right to privacy, disclosed her sexual orientation without her permission in derogation of her rights under the Fourteenth Amendment," the lawsuit reads. "[The coaches'] actions were not merely the result of vindictiveness against Miss Wyatt, but compliance with KISD’s policy of disclosing students’ sexual orientation to parents."

    KISD argued that because Skye told Newell and Fletcher that she was dating an 18-year-old woman, they had a legal obligation to alert her parents. Hinton doesn't buy that defense.

    "First of all, the law says that if you believe a child is in danger of sexual abuse, you contact law enforcement, not the parents," Hinton says. "And I seriously doubt that if the coaches found out that a 16-year-old girl was dating an 18-year-old boy they would have made this big of a deal about it. It's just total pretense in my opinion, but that's the story they started telling."

    The case lasted four years, with KISD winning a small victory when the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed one of Skye's federal claims against the teachers under "qualified immunity." The case's two other claims were allowed to proceed, however, and the lawsuit was set for a March 3 jury trial. But it would never come to that.

    In addition to cutting Skye a $77,500 check for mental anguish and suffering, the February 21 settlement stipulates that KISD will hold a training session on sexual orientation and privacy policies and update its student/teacher handbook to include specific language about the district's anti-discrimination for sexual orientation.

    "It was a long, hard fight, but I’m really glad that the school district agreed to make a positive change that will prevent this from happening again," said Wayne Krause Yang of the Texas Civil Rights Project. "It’s not just a win for our client and her family, but for the school district, all of its students and their parents. This will benefit everybody."

    For its part, Kilgore ISD still remains defiant that it ever violated Skye's constitutional rights of privacy or had inadequate anti-discrimination policies.

    "The actions of coaches Fletcher and Newell were entirely appropriate," a KISD statement about the settlement reads in part. "The KISD board, its administrators, educators and employees will continue to safeguard the welfare and rights of all of its students and staff."

    Texas Civil Rights Project helped represent Skye Wyatt in her lawsuit against KISD.

    Texas Civil Rights Project
      
    Photo courtesy of Texas Civil Rights Project
    Texas Civil Rights Project helped represent Skye Wyatt in her lawsuit against KISD.
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    License Plate News

    Dallas car buyers get metal license plates stat under new Texas law

    Teresa Gubbins
    Jun 10, 2025 | 2:35 pm
    Texas license plate
    DMV
    Texas license plate

    A new state law will go into effect in Texas that makes it easier for car owners to get permanent metal license plates: The new law, House Bill 718, was actually passed by the 88th Legislature in 2023, but it goes into effect on July 1, 2025. It will allow car dealers to begin issuing metal license plates directly when they sell a car, whether it's new or used.

    In the previous needlessly elaborate process, new car owners would receive a temporary paper license, and then apply for metal license plates. The new law will eliminate that requirement, allowing car buyers to get metal license plates when they purchase a car from a dealer.

    The new law arose out of the huge imbroglio over temporary paper tags, which were designed to be used on a temporary basis while car buyers waited to receive their permanent plates. But scammers were obtaining car dealer licenses, then printing up hundreds of thousands of temporary paper tags and selling them to people hoping to avoid paying for insurance and car registration.

    The paper tags gave Texas a black eye because they became a crime problem not just in Texas but nationally, turning up on cars involved in crimes in Texas, New York, and beyond. In a 2021 investigation, the FBI found more than a half-million fraudulent paper tags, sold by just three people to buyers across the country.

    Bill 718 was initially designed to go into effect in September 2023, then March 2025, but the final bill bumped the deadline back to July 1, 2025. That's thanks to The Texas Independent Automobile Dealers Association, who were "concerned" about having an adequate supply of metal plates in such a short time frame. Let's hope they got it together!

    The new rules are as follows:

    Buying from a Dealer: Consumers purchasing a vehicle from a Texas dealer will receive metal license plates instead of paper temporary tags, driving off the lot with their plates already in place.

    Until their registration sticker arrives from their county office, customers must keep their buyer’s plate receipt in the vehicle to be able to verify the purchase and pending registration to law enforcement.

    Trading In a Vehicle: When consumers sell or trade in a vehicle with general issue plates, dealers may transfer the plates to another vehicle sold within 10 days, if the plates match the appropriate vehicle type, per Senate Bill 1902, passed by the 89th Legislature this year. (Consumers with specialty license plates will keep their plates.)

    Buying/Selling a Vehicle in a Private Sale: The private party sales process remains unchanged: Sellers should remove their license plates and registration sticker from the vehicle when they deliver the vehicle to the buyer. The seller can request to transfer the plates to another vehicle they own—if appropriate for the vehicle type—by visiting their county tax assessor-collector's office.

    Sellers should submit a Vehicle Transfer Notification to the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles within 30 days of the sale of the vehicle.

    Buyers must submit a title and registration application at their county tax assessor-collector’s office and obtain new plates to register the vehicle in their name within 30 days of purchase.

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