I think what they are doing is very courageous! This issue has been shoved under the table and covered up in a multitude of schools. We have children commiting suicide for the back lash for this kind of cituation. I say hang in there Barbara and Skye. My prayers and support are with you.

Newspapers should not allow anonymous cowardly comments. Here an anonymous says Barbara has been arrested before - convictions are the only allowable evidence of guilt not arrests - that's why we have a constitution. I don't know who "Barbara" is I'm just a school board member and attorney from another district who was interested in this case as it impacts everyone. I also know not to judge a case until it is heard.

Most of the comments here are full of assumptions based on a press release written by the plaintiff’s attorney. A lawsuit is merely a CLAIM with allegations as seen from the eyes of the plaintiff. This story really captured my attention, so I have done a little research and here is my take: 1) None of us have heard any testimony (under sworn oath) of any of the litigants. Therefore, we have no way of knowing if the teachers actually locked S.W. in a room and "terrorized" her. We still do not know the contents of the conversations the coaches had with S.W. We don't know the actual circumstances around which S.W. left the softball team that day. So, for those of you that have jumped on the "torture" bandwagon, you are a bit premature in your conjecture. If the school board had known those were the actions of its teachers, don't you think they would have taken punitive action? No teacher or coach is going to lock a child in a room and "get in their face" in front of a co-worker witness, much less make them feel threat of physical harm. All teachers are very aware of common sense, and terrorizing a student unlikely happened. 2) The media has misconstrued Supt. Clements quote and taken it out of context. Mr. Clements' exact quote was: "We feel confident that everything the district did was right". He made no mention that the district had a policy requiring teachers or staff members to "out" gay students. Doesn't that sound like a weird policy for a district to have? It simply does NOT exist. He was referring to the grievances and the complaints that lay within. He is saying that the district addressed Mrs. Wyatt's complaints at the time and found that the coaches' acted within policy. I do, however, imagine there is a legal obligation on the part of teachers to inform parents of criminal activity. 3) S.W. was involved in a criminal relationship, a statutory rape situation with an 18 year old adult. Parents are called guardians for a reason. If the school district confirms that a student is engaged in criminal activity (ie. possession of drugs, sexual misconduct, theft, etc.), the parent is entitled to this information. So, it wasn't that the coaches were telling Mrs. Wyatt her daughter was gay; they were informing her that S.W. was being sexually abused. The coaches did not “out” S.W. There is a big difference in "outing" and informing a parent of "sexual abuse". The coaches were addressing statutory rape, which could involve opposite sex or same sex. Every parent reading this believes their judgement is superior to that of the minor, and that they would want to know if their child was being sexually abused. 4) As for the 3 grievances that were presented to the school district, have any of you read them? I have not either, obviously, but I have been studying the timing. Something tells me that the allegations in the lawsuit (that took a year to concoct from the final grievance) were nowhere to be found in Mrs. Wyatt's complaints to the school board. For the truth, we will have to wait until testimony occurs. The date of the alleged event was March 2, 2009. Mrs. Wyatt waited until Aug 24, 2009, to file her first grievance. I am intrigued that she would wait nearly 6 months to file a complaint if she was SO worried that her daughter had been terrorized and could have been physically hurt by some big mean coaches. Then, after several conversations with those close to the case, I uncovered a possible motive. Could this Aug 24th date correspond with the fact that S.W. wasn't good enough to make the volleyball team, and Mrs. Wyatt got really mad? S.W. had gained a tremendous amount of weight and was unable to complete the mile run in the required time. Her first grievance was dismissed, as a parent has 3 weeks from the event to file. Don't you all wonder why she waited? Then, when that was rejected, she went into "I'm-going-to-get-these-people-back" mode. She filed Grievance 2 on September 16, 2009 which was researched and found that no violations or indiscretions had occurred. Grievance 3 was filed on October 30, 2009, with the same result. The school board found that the district(including the coaches) had handled the situation appropriately (reference Supt. Clements’ quote). Summation: Here we seem to have a case of an angry parent wanting to get revenge upon what she perceives as a powerful school district. The credibility factor does not weigh in S.W.’s or Mrs. Wyatt’s favor. Courts use credibility as a means of justifying the truthfulness of any statements made. S.W. has a history of disciplinary activity at the school and an abundance of testimonies finding her of questionable character. Mrs. Wyatt has had multiple incidences with the law including an aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. If she has been convicted, and is a felon, her status becomes more grim. Imagine the damage this does to the Wyatts' testimony when compared to the coaches, school representatives and other students with clean backgrounds. We all most likely have a long time to wait to hear some pertinent details that were intentionally left out of the claim (lawsuit). The press release was written to anger the public and capture the media’s attention. This plot has worked to perfection, but will backfire in time. The story has garnered national and international news. Even the timing of the filing of the suit was pre-meditated. File a suit against a school district the day they begin a 2-week vacation and the plaintiff has the floor to sway the public and media for two weeks with no response. In fact, I doubt the district will even bother to make a statement. They intend for their innocence to be proven in a court and are not at all worried. And back to timing: Mrs. Wyatt’s last grievance was October 30, 2009. Why did it take nearly 14 months to put together a lawsuit? She looked long and hard for a lawyer who would take this questionable case. I hope she is saving her money, as I see several countersuits in the making. The case has no legal merit, it will fail. The case might be thrown out immediately or dismissed then appealed. We are all in for a very long legal haul, so buckle up and wait for the truth, not just an argument written by a lawyer and his very angry client. This case will be tried in a court, not in ridiculous news articles’ comment sections, blogs, and tabloids. AMERICANS (the jury) and JUDGES are smarter than that.

Wow. I just thought someone should point out that all of you defending the coaches are really saying that it's fine for teachers to terrorize students into revealing very personal details and revealing them to the world. It is not the place of teachers to traumatize students. What the particular issue was doesn't matter; by supporting these two, you're saying that encouraging bullying and urging suicide are just fine.

Isn't forgery kinda like lying on paper? What did she mama forge?

I can understand that the present or former fellow-students of Skye feel that her personality and/or prior actions should make a difference in this case. However,it seems that the mother tried to get the matter dealt with in a more limited fashion first, and the school district not only did not budge, but also seems to have a policy that teachers should out students. Whether or not this particular student cared about the outing [and, come off it, folks, there are things that your fellow-students know about you that you would lie your head off to keep from your parents], the fact remains that, with today's news about suicides over sexual orientation, school districts should certainly not spread private information around. If other districts take heed, this lawsuit may prevent other instances where the parents' reaction could have been disastrous.

The viciousness of a small town. And my, how people love to take sides. Skye, best thing you can do is finish school and move to a friendlier part of the country. Texas is toxic.

I would like to say that Skye Wyatt didn't need either coach Fletcher or Coach Newell to out her, because she makes her statement about being a gay American very clear all by herself. I happen to be in a class at school with Skye and have witnessed first hand that the last thing she keeps secret is her sexual orientation. Being that we are seniors now I would think that she would have been mature enough to dismiss all of this since she is very open about her being gay, but I believe that her bringing all of this up after two years will work nothing but against her and that she will have to deal with a lot of negativeness when we get back to school on Jan. 3rd. I myself will be absolutely behind Coach Newell and Fletcher 100% of the way. They did nothing wrong. They also have to protect their softball students who would not be comfortable with having a lesbian in the locker rooms. They have to protect their students against issues that happen and I believe that all they were doing was their job and protecting their students.

I think the facts that Skye has a reputation as a pathological liar (based on accounts from school and family friends) and Barbara Wyatt has been arrested 7 times - http://co.gregg.tx.us/OdysseyPA/JailingSearchResults.aspx - (Gregg county public records), speaks to the characters of the Plaintiffs a little bit.

Well, I know for a fact that the Lord will work in this. I know that the truth will come out, we have only heard one side of a story there is always two. So I personally think that we all need to remember the time of year it is and go on with our own lives. I truely hope Casey and Rhonda have a wonderful Christmas and can put this behind you, at least for now. Newell and Fletcher I stand behind you 110%.

Skye, your amazing please keep fighting for our rights it is ridiculous. After a school trip I have my band directors out me to my entire 2a school where my stepbrother attended and was very hurt by this; he should have never found out that way and my girlfriend at the time had never wanted to come out she is a very private person it was total torment and humiliation for a very long time. I am glad your standing up for yourself and for the rights we have as an individual, many people in society are taking "gay" to far it is not something we choose or can change it is something that just is, I really wish everyone would understand that. However, stay strong girl and know this is an amazing step towards something.

I'm sure there is more to this than is mentioned. We have one side of the story and it sounds like the one telling the story tells lies so that doesn't make her very credible. I can't imagine that the ONLY reason the coaches were talking to her mother was to tell her about SW's sexual orientation. That sounds far fetched to me. Too bad the softball coaches can't comment then maybe we would get a two-sided story instead of a one-sided story but it does sound like SW has other issues than just being lesbian. Sounds like the students of KHS know SW and how she is. What better proof of her credibility than that of her peers. When this comes down to "she said-she said" who are you going to believe? The coaches who seem to have the support of many or SW whose peers have said she is a habitual lier? I understand the main suit is that the mother was told of her daughter's sexual orientation but what difference does that make if the mother already knew which it sounds like she did. I mean how can a mother not know her daughter is a lesbian when the daughter is so open about it and has been for years? It's not like she kept it a huge secret.

To Dustin You know that if she falsely accused you of rape that you could file a defamation of character law suit. Since they may be rich and famous, maybe you should.

I have to put in my two cents worth here. This whole thing started because Skye Wyatt wanted the world to hear about her and her gay lover so she posted some pretty raunchy stuff on a social internet network. The coaches heard about it from some other students and they took a look at it. Turns out, Skye was having an inappropriate sexual relationship with an ADULT!!! Not another student. This is what the coaches thought her mother should hear about. I would want to know if my child was being abused sexually, wouldn't you? But did Barbara call the law? No, her interest did not lie in her daughter's welfare, but in what kind of attention they could get out of it. If it had been a man Skye was sneaking around with, the coaches would have fared better. The woman she was seeing still lives in Longview and has never been arrested. Her name is Hillary Skye Nutt. Yes, you saw correctly. And she goes by Skye Nutt. (no pun intended) She has been quesioned so it is just a matter of time before the whole world hears how Skye and Barbara Wyatt have manipulated this story and convinced a young attention-seeking attorney to take their case. Oh yeah, and Skye, just because you delete things off of your facebook, it doesn't make it disappear. It's in cyberspace for all to see.

To I Am Very Sad in previous post The coaches, teachers , students and all citizens of this town are all God's children, too. Sometimes the truth is harsh. Should it be swept under the rug?

For those of you that are deffending the little girl that is so innocent have you thought for a second that you could be wrong and that sweet little girl could be a conniving little brat. For example she said in her own words that she would go behind her mom's back and deny any aspect of her being a lesbian. But I do not blame her for being that way. If her mother would step up to her responsiblities then they would not be putting this off on the coaches. But they just want a guilt trip and want people to feel sorry for the pour little baby. Grow up and take responsiblilty in your own actions and stop putting your mistakes on other people.

I am an adult, not a student, who has attended girls' sporting events in Kilgore for many years. I followed the teams even before Coach Newall or Coach Fletcher came to KHS. Every year's team has had some players who have claimed to be lesbians. (Who cares?) I have seen those girls (depending on their talent) played as much or maybe more than other girls. So I know that the coaches do not discriminate based on sexual orintation. I have overheard players on the B team who were sitting in the bleachers watching the A team play make statements about players' lifestyles. There did not seem to be any secrets. Surely if people, including me, knew that Skye wanted to be called a lesbian, her mother knew or suspected it. I do not think that this community is concerned about sexual lifestyles. And as one poster replied, if the girl says that she would lie to her mother, doesn't that self brand her as a liar??

I AM VERY SAD! Have we all lost sight of our purpose here on this earth. I suggest that many of the people that have commented here drop to their knees and ask GOD for forgiveness for you harsh words. This young girl is one of gods children. The same person that created her created YOU! Stop this negative nonsence. God Bless Barbara and here children. Stay strong! The lord says he WILL CARRY YOU THROUGH. Jesus said "If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it." John 14:14. Remember Jesus also said "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." Mathew 28:18. Therefore it is with boldness that we believe there is Power in Prayer for He is looking to perform that which we ask Him to. Jeremiah 33:3 says "Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not." Friend, Prayer works.

Enjoying your white socks and Blue Ribbon beer?

I have always felt that you are who you are and if you cant live with that then the problem must ly within. It sounds like to me that someone is just trying to get some easy money out of this situation, instead of working for it maybe the Wyatts are just looking for a handout. The whole problem probably grew from the fact that the kid is just a lazy butt and didnt like the coaches pushing her. So she took a meaningless situation and blew it out of proportion. And to the mother instead of pointing fingers at other people try looking in the mirror and see where the real problem came from.

“If this event had not happened, I would never have told her – never. I would have snuck around. Even if I had gotten caught, I would have denied it,” Skye said. she admitted that she lies in her own interview , get serious this is ridiculous.

Like mother, like daughter - both of them are drama queens! I have known this family for several years and there is always something "devistating" going on in their lives. Barbara, the mother of Skye and Summer has raised these girls on her own and these girls have never had to take responsiblility for their own actions. It is always someone else's fault. This story is filled with holes and half-truths and even though the school probably could have handled this situation better, these "ladies" love living in the spotlight and nothing about their lives is private.

That is just wrong what they are to her I support the Wyatt I know they can get by this.

OK, let me get this straight....the mother is upset with "privacy" and yet, she has filed suit...lady, you just blew the heck out of privacy. Now, the whole town knows!

Wow, i honestly cannot believe some of these comments. A lot of them are completely irreverant to this situation. Regardless of the past, what has happened has happened and these coaches are in the wrong. Has Skye lied? ..Yes. Have I lied? ..Yes ..Have you lied? ..Yes. We've all lied before, and lying before has nothing to do with what's going on now. There is enough evidence (a lawsuit) that proves this has happened, so the statement of "she's lied before" does not pertain to this at all. It doesn't matter if she announces to everyone that she is homosexual, these coaches had no right to disclose this information to her mother. Everyone is trying to blend the social aspect into the courtroom and in the courtroom society and who you are before doesn't matter. The law is the law. Even if her mother knew before hand, they still had no right to tell her. It did not harm anyone, so the "they did what's right" statement can be completely disregarded. Even IF the interrogation had not happenen; they still disclosed her personal information and had no right to do it (There's proof for that). I'm assuming they were mad that she would not give them details about what was going on and pulled the "okay, I'm telling your mommy and you're not playing softball." Does everyone not see that? The put her out of sports because she is gay. That is hardcore descrimination. So there's two things that make for a lawsuit. The Wyatts have fully authority to sue and are completely right for doing it. I'm very proud of them for not being scared of what everyone will think and doing what's right. As if High School isn't hard enough.

I have a bad feeling about a bunch of the comments attacking the teen in this story. They are all Anonymous yet attack this girl. Have some guts people. If thats your opinion and you can back it up, why be afraid to post your name? Or could it be that there is a fear of libel? The bottom line is all teachers are taught to be careful with what they say to students. Being concerned about this childs sexual orientation in regards to a girl who wasnt even a student of theirs seems a little nosy on their part. Thats a position for the school counselor or another psych pro who are equipped to deal with these sensitive issues. When they contacted the mother, they crossed the line. POINT BLANK. The family went through the Level 3 grievance requirement and the school decided how they decided. That removed the umbrella law protecting the district and the educators involved. Now, I hope this will teach ppl they just cant attack people based on race, religion, economic status or sexual orientation. I hope it teaches them that just because they are in the middle of nowhere it doesnt give them the right to act any way they feel. The days of the "old boy" system are fading fast. ACCEPT IT.

As I read the article on this page, I am sick to my stomach. You know that anyone, anytime can file a lawsuit against someone with nothing to go on but what that plaintiff has stated as truth. The word alleged From Your dictionary" means- so declared, but without proof or legal conviction; called by this term, but perhaps improperly so; so-called:" . The key word in this lawsuit is alleged! The title of this article alone gives the impression of guilt "Lawsuit: KISD coaches outed student" from the Kilgore News Herald. Thanks news people for giving the teachers a break. Teachers cannot even do their jobs anymore for fear of articles just like this one and for fear of kids getting mad and lashing out by making false claims. Just reading the comments from the students on this page gives me the idea that the character of the Plaintiff should be taken into account. Most teachers in cases like this are asked to remain quite and make no comment so things can be kept as calm as possible for the school. I understand this, but know there is another side to this and most other like cases. My heart goes out to the teachers in this case and ones like it who must sit back and wait while the media jumps on a case that will gain statewide or national coverage because of the "Alleged" content of sexual preference. I am proud of the students who are standing up for these coaches.

I would have to disagree with those who support the Wyatt family's cause of forming a lawsuit against coaches Newell and Fletcher. I also am a senior as well as Miss Wyatt, and have grown up with her and many other attendees of Kilgore High School. I have never had any harsh feelings with Skye and have known her longer than either of the coaches. Therefore, I believe that she (Skye Wyatt) is making a overly dramatic deal over a small matter which is really nothing at all. Throughout the years at Kilgore High School, I know that Skye has been open about her sexuality. I also have had the pleasure of not only knowing her, but also the accused staff who I have to say are very outstanding individuals. From also being in the locker room, I have known Coach Newell and Coach Fletcher, and other coaches as well, to help and be there for their players and their students. I hope that this unnecessary incident will pass over quickly so that the students and faculty of Kilgore High School along with the parents and citizens of Kilgore can return to a seminormal state of it's continuous dramatic events. Although...this is Kilgore.

I went to school with Skye for 5 years. She is not a liar. She's loud, yes, obnoxious at times, yes. Do people dislike her? Yes. Does that mean that this is bogus? No. She was mistreated and if they feel that this needs to be done, then this needs to be done. The only reason people aren't following is because they don't like her. Alllll of these rude comments are petty high school drama. People need to look at the big picture, and understand this isn't a matter of who likes who its a matter or the law and personal privacy. If the majority of the world were gay, and you were outed to your parents and ostracized for being straight would that be ok with you? No!

Ok Im mad now,,, Didnt no one get on here tellin all yall hatin folks to get on here runny ya spearkerboxs,, Skye got every rite to file a lawsuite against these crooked folks at khs point, blank, period,,, This is ha life n them 2 coachs I kno,, N they are very crooked n 1 should have lost ha job a long time ago,,, Her mama n her should countinue to do what they are doin because they are wrong for this,, They tell students nt to bring mess outside of school to the school n leave fights n mess out but yet u have coaches doin bs like this,,, You dang skippy I bac this up 1000% bc kilgore is so crooked,, especially that dang K H S,,, Good luck boo Ily u skye n u n yo mama doin the rite thing hunny bun (edited)