Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that 25 Year Old Man Arrested After Posing As a 17 Year Old and Enrolling Back Into High School To Play High School Basketball.
Sidney Bouvier Gilstrap-Portley allegedly posed as a 17-year-old Hurricane Harvey refugee so he could play boys' basketball at Hillcrest High School in Dallas, Texas.
On Tuesday, the Dallas Morning News reported the 25-year-old, who also spent time at Skyline High School, was arrested Friday on a charge of tampering with government records.
The mother of a 14-year-old female student told the paper he dated her daughter while at Hillcrest High.
Gilstrap-Portley, who officials say was operating under the alias Rashun Richardson, was named the District 11-5A Offensive Player of the Year during the 2017-18 season.
Dallas Independent School District spokeswoman Robyn Harris said they believe his "primary motivation" for using Hurricane Harvey to get enrolled was basketball, according to the Dallas Morning News.
"He took that as an opportunity to gain access to our schools," she said. "He was fairly savvy to be able to utilize that type of position, knowing that we were accepting Harvey students."
His scheme was discovered when one of Gilstrap-Portley's former coaches, who witnessed him graduate from North Mesquite High School, saw him playing in an April tournament and alerted the Hillcrest staff.
The report noted Gilstrap-Portley bonded out of Dallas County Jail after his Friday arrest.
He was booked into the Dallas County Jail and posted bond, according to the Dallas Morning News. An attorney for him was not listed.
Gilstrap-Portley had deceived school administrators following Hurricane Harvey using the fact that the storm laid waste to homes and schools to his advantage when he enrolled at Hillcrest High School in October 2017, Harris says.
“We have kind of looked at this as a perfect storm as it became a very complex story toward this individual who posed as a student,” says Harris.
“We have kind of looked at this as a perfect storm as it became a very complex story toward this individual who posed as a student,” says Harris.
Gilstrap-Portley enrolled first at Skyline High School before he was transferred to Hillcrest High School as a Hurricane Harvey evacuee.
His reason? An alleged desire to reinvent himself as a basketball star on the school’s team. He succeeded in playing on the team until a former coach of his during his actual high school days spotted him at a tournament the weekend of April 27.
“My understanding is that the coach learned he was playing in Hillcrest. He reached out to the coach at Hillcrest and they immediately alerted the school administrators and began a formal investigation,” says Harris.
The school district’s own police force also began an investigation and security measures were put in place should Gilstrap-Portley return to the school.
He did not, however, return after being confronted by his former coach, who provided his real name of Gilstrap-Portley to the school.
Once school officials were able to verify his real birth name, they concluded Gilstrap-Portley had graduated from Mesquite North High School in 2011.
“We can surmise this was brought on by an effort to relive his glory days as a basketball student,” says Harris. “That’s our own personal belief.”
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