The March 19 board meeting of the Katy Independent School District was routine — until a man named Greg Barrett took the microphone.

Barrett told a wrenching story of being savagely bullied as a junior high student four decades ago. He was mocked, beaten, harassed, he said. One day, he was cornered in a bathroom, his head was shoved in a urinal, his lip split. He was pushed to the floor and kicked mercilessly.

That day, Barrett said, he went home, found his father's gun, and stuck it in his mouth.

Barrett did not pull the trigger. But his testimony — captured in a viral YouTube video — is heartbreaking proof that the abuse he suffered left permanent scars.

The ultimate shock: The classmate Barrett alleged his main tormentor is now Katy ISD Superintendent — and former Allen ISD Superintendent — Lance Hindt.

The aftermath of that anything-but-routine meeting has been a district-wide uproar. Hindt has denied the specifics of the accusation, while issuing a vaguely worded apology to district employees for bringing "negative attention" to Katy ISD.

Other long-ago classmates — including a man who is now an Alabama circuit court judge — corroborate that Hindt, a football player from a well-to-do family, was a "vicious bully" in high school and junior high who terrorized weaker students. Barrett was a target, they said, chiefly because his last name, which he has since changed, was "Gay."

Further investigation has revealed that Hindt, at 18, was sued by a Houston-area man who said Hindt beat him into a coma after a confrontation over a traffic dispute. The suit was settled for an undisclosed sum.

The result is an angry rift in Katy, the ninth-largest and one of the fastest-growing school districts in Texas. Dueling online petitions call for Hindt's firing or for renewed support of the embattled superintendent. Katy trustees have stood behind him.

Hindt himself has conceded that "when I was young and dumb, I did dumb things."

Evidence suggests that Hindt has grown into an accomplished and respected adult. During his two-year tenure in the Allen ISD, he was credited as a tough negotiator in getting repairs made to a costly football stadium plagued with construction problems. He has publicly credited religion, his family, and supportive teachers and coaches with making him a better person since his school days.

Yet it's equally obvious that Barrett, like countless other adults, still suffers from the memory of the abuse he endured.

This episode, in many respects, mirrors the #MeToo cultural movement, in which victims of sexual harassment have publicly disclosed their experiences. In many instances, they have disrupted the careers of powerful and unrepentant abusers.

A key difference in this case, however, is that the accusations against Hindt, serious as they are, concern allegations from when he was a teenager. The law mitigates consequences for juvenile offenders owing to their age; society, as a rule, judges minors less harshly than adults.

But one element is clear: Had adult school authorities been more vigilant, had they done more to recognize and eliminate bullying behavior, this wouldn't be an issue today.

For Lance Hindt, these allegations are decades old. They're water under the bridge.

For the man who once put a gun in his own mouth, the scars won't fade.

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