Dueling petitions online over Hindt bullying allegations

The case of embattled Katy ISD Superintendent Lance Hindt has resulted in a pair of opposing petitions on the Change.org website.

One of them, started by a former Katy ISD student now attending the University of Texas, wants the district's board of trustees to fire Hindt.

But a more recent petition from a Katy resident backs Hindt and lays the blame for the controversy at the feet of the media.

The dueling Change.org petitions began after Tompkins High graduate Nitant Patel, 19, posted his request for Hindt's firing.

"While Hindt denies the claim, many witnesses have backed up the bullying allegations," Patel wrote. "These are not the actions of a superintendent of a growing school district, they are the behaviors of a playground bully."

The controversy began after Hindt was accused during the March 19 Katy ISD board work study session of attacking Katy resident Greg Gay in a school bathroom more than 35 years ago while both were students at West Memorial High School. Hindt has denied the charge but admitted he did "dumb things" when he was young.

While more than 4,400 people have currently signed the petition demanding the Katy ISD superintendent's ouster, Hindt does have support both on the school board and in the public. More than 2,000 people have signed a later Change.org petition backing Hindt.

"During the past several weeks, local, state and national news have consumed the airwaves with negative stories regarding our superintendent, Dr. Lance Hindt, and it has sharply divided our community," wrote Katy resident Rory Robertson. "The signers of this petition are showing the school board and employees of Katy ISD that we strongly support Dr. Hindt."

One of the signers of the anti-Hindt petition said she didn't like the way Hindt has treated "tax paying parents that pay his salary."

"He is bullying our kids through the administration the same way he bullied (Greg Gay) as a kid. It's immoral and I am embarrassed by his behavior," Katy resident Jill Allred wrote.

But another Katy resident, identified in one of the petitions as Shari Nightingale, said she fully supported Hindt.

"The people who accuse him of bullying 35 years ago are now the bullies," Nightingale wrote. "All of us have done things we aren't proud of and have been accused of things we may not have done."

However the petitions turn out, it will be the Katy ISD Board of Trustees who will have the deciding vote in Hindt's tenure in the district. In a recent statement from board president Ashley Vann, his position seems safe.

"We stand united with Dr. Hindt today," she wrote.