By George Slaughter
The Katy Independent School Board of Trustees will hold a special meeting Thursday night to decide whether to engage a lawyer to pursue legal action for defamation on behalf of Superintendent Dr. Lance Hindt, other school officials, and other district staff.
Trustees will also decide whether to amend Hindt’s contract.
Hindt was accused in March of participating in a bullying incident that allegedly took place over 35 years ago, when he was a student in junior high school. Sean Dolan, a Katy internet marketing company owner who has had issues with Hindt and the district, took the video recording of those allegations and turned them into a stand-alone video, subtitled it, and placed it on the Internet. The altered video drew widespread attention from across the country.
Hindt issued a statement saying that he was not part of that incident.
Following this episode, an online disclosure of a 35-year-old lawsuit against Hindt was revealed. The lawsuit alleged that Hindt, after leaving a party in February 1983, got out of his car and assaulted a man after the man yelled at Hindt to drive more slowly through the neighborhood. Court documents also show that Hindt maintained that the man attacked him first after standing in front of his car and then reaching inside the vehicle. Hindt was never charged with a crime.
The board issued statements of support after both the allegations and the online disclosure, saying that it fully vetted Hindt’s background before offering him the superintendent’s job. Hindt supporters last month held a rally in his honor before a board meeting.
More recently, Dolan has insinuated that Hindt plagiarized his doctoral thesis at the University of Houston.
The special meeting is set for 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Education Support Complex, 6301 S. Stadium Lane. The board will meet in closed meeting at that time to discuss these issues. The open portion of the meeting is expected to begin at about 8:30 p.m.
To see the agenda, visit the district web site.
