Sidney Bouvier Gilstrap-Portley allegedly claimed to be a Hurricane Harvey refugee so that he could play basketball at Hillcrest High School — and date an underage girl. While the girl’s mother asserts that Gilstrap-Portley did not have a sexual relationship with her daughter, he did allegedly “date” her in January.
“I’m upset, frustrated, angry and sad at the same time,” she said in an interview with the Dallas Morning News. “If it’s happening at Hillcrest, then it could be happening somewhere else. It could have gone differently if he had other intentions to hurt her or to traffic her.”
During his time at Hillcrest, he also played on the Hillcrest High basketball team. It was allegedly not his first academic sports career. Gilstrap-Portley reportedly played basketball in another high school — North Mesquite, where he graduated back in 2011. After that, he also reportedly played for Dallas Christian College before deciding to take this trip back in time.
North Mesquite Head Basketball Coach Phillip Randall was not the one who found him out, but he did help to confirm his identity to Hillcrest once one of the other former coaches had spotted him. “He was an average player and a good kid,” Randall said. “I’m surprised.”
Dallas ISD Superintendent Dr. Michael Hinojosa is understandably frustrated by the situation. Because Gilstrap-Portley claimed to be a Hurricane Harvey evacuee, federal law protected him from having to provide documentation about his identity that he may not have possessed. “For him to take advantage of the Harvey situation and then the homeless laws and get himself in front of our students, it is frustrating,” Hinojosa said.
He has vowed that the school will “follow better protocals to try and prevent this from happening,” though in this case, it seems their hands were tied. Still, Hinojosa empathizes with parents’ concerns: “You send your kid to be safe at school and to participate in extracurricular activities and this should not happen.”