Hillcrest 25-year-old featured in Sports Illustrated
The story of Sidney Gilstrap-Portley, the 25-year-old who posed as a high school student at Hillcrest in 2017 to play varsity basketball, has gotten national attention.
Max Marshall put together a large piece for Sports Illustrated that hit the internet on Thursday, detailing the saga of Gilstrap-Portley and his exploits posing as a 17-year-old at the Dallas high school. He was eventually arrested after being charged with an inappropriate relationship with a 14-year-old student.
Originally a 2011 graduate of North Mesquite High School, Gilstrap-Portley enrolled at Hillcrest after claiming to be homeless and a survivor of Hurricane Harvey, police said.
Dallas ISD has a policy – backed by a federal law, according to district officials – that requires school districts to immediately enroll homeless students that wish to attend school. Those students do not immediately need the necessary identification required of other would-be students.
With Gilstrap-Portley claiming to be homeless, the district enrolled him. By November, he was registered as a full-time student at Hillcrest under the name Rashun Richardson and began playing for the varsity basketball team.
Here’s the Sports Illustrated story, and here’s our original stories for Preston Hollow People.
