Danny Gianfrancesco is determined to speak out and is continually seeking justice for the attack on his daughter, Brooklynn, that occurred on March 25. According to Gianfrancesco, Brooklynn endured ongoing harassment from a football player who also started the altercation. If another student hadn’t recorded the incident and it hadn’t become viral on social media, this brutal and unprovoked attack might have been ignored by Taylor High School and the Katy Independent School District (Katy ISD).
What adds to Gianfrancesco’s frustration, shared by the community in Katy, TX, is the response from school officials and Katy ISD. As highlighted by RedState, the school utilized the district’s self-defense policy to classify the altercation as a “mutual confrontation,” resulting in Brooklynn and the football player both being suspended for three days. This decision restricts Gianfrancesco from pursuing legal action against the football player.
As noted by Gianfrancesco and their family spokesperson, the football player seemingly resumed his activities with the team without any interruption. In contrast, Brooklynn, who plays volleyball, had to fight to remain on the school’s team. Gianfrancesco intervened to ensure she could continue playing, but school officials are still considering how to penalize Brooklynn for an altercation she did not start or provoke.
This is my worst nightmare, Gianfrancesco said. My daughter getting beat up by a boy and I can’t do anything about it. It’s, you know, that’s sleepless nights right there.
Gianfrancesco personally related the nightmare assault on Brooklynn in order to give a clearer picture of what is at stake.
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I asked Gianfrancesco if the case could be reopened by the school with Title IX considerations in mind. As one law firm explains,
Generally speaking, Title IX requires educational institutions to provide equal treatment and opportunities as well as protect against harassment or other ill-treatment on the basis of sex in educational settings. Title 9 is a federal law that applies “only” to institutions that receive federal funding. As a practical matter, however, almost every college and university in the U.S. gets some funding from the federal government, and they risk losing it if they do not comply with Title 9.
Gianfrancesco said that neither the administrators at Taylor High School nor Katy ISD had reported the harassment to the Katy ISD Board of Trustees.
And then that day that I went into the office, the next day when I told the principal myself [about the harassment]… if she didn’t know, let’s say she didn’t know before that, which she did—but when I reported sexual harassment, they’re supposed to immediately contact the Title IX coordinator, and they didn’t contact anybody, Gianfrancesco said.
When Gianfrancesco revealed this information to the Board of Trustees, he said they were upset because this was the first they had heard about the prior harassment.
It seems just like a cover up to me. Like what you hear about Katy ISD all the time, how they cover for their athletes and any bad publicity. They just wanna stuff it under the rug and make it go away so they don’t have to answer to it. But my girl got beat up in class and it was by a boy who’s got a prior record of doing the same stuff. And I want justice. And I’m not going away.
According to Gianfrancesco and their family representative, the football player who attacked Brooklynn has a history of violent and harassing behavior.
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The Gianfrancesco’s representative noted this in a May 2, 2025, press release:
According to witnesses, victims, and school records, the assailant had a violent history. When he was a student at Memorial Parkway Junior High, at 11 years-old, in 2022, he was charged with assault. In this incident he slammed another schoolmate into the side of the bus, hit him, and held him in a choke hold. Katy ISD Police Officer Elvin Paley, Jr, was stationed at Memorial Parkway Junior High that year and oversaw that case. We are still waiting on more details on that incident.
The attacker’s violence did not stop after the 2022 assault charge. While at Memorial Parkway Junior High, according to victims who attended school with him, he continued the violence afterwards and had a long history of slapping and hitting female students there, and sexually harrassing them. It is believed that Taylor High School knew about this violent history and not only failed to protect their female students but they still did not give him the proper punishment after assaulting Brooklynn.
In fact, the same Katy ISD police officer stationed with the attacker at Memorial Parkway Junior High, Elvin Paley, Jr., moved with him to Taylor High School—the officer knew everything so parents are wondering why that same officer, who knew of and oversaw the previous assault case, did not take steps to protect Taylor High School girls. Moreover, he and Katy ISD are not giving the Gianfrancesco family the information they need to file criminal charges or get additional protection against this repeat offender.
From community and statewide press reports, Katy ISD has had multiple issues centered around violence and sexual misconduct. The principal of Taylor High School, where the attack on Brooklynn occurred, is connected to a sexual misconduct matter that is still under investigation. Taylor HS principal Melinda Stone is married to James Paul Stone, a teacher at another Katy ISD school who was arrested last year and charged with nine counts of producing child pornography, some of which Mr. Stone admitted he had recorded on school grounds.
An October 2024 incident at Mayde Creek High School is particularly chilling. The school’s former assistant principal, Adrian Lee Berg, was charged with assault of a high school girl. As in Gianfrancesco’s case, the school did not inform the girl’s mother about the nature of the attack.
[…]
Hayes said she was shocked when she arrived at the school, and no one had informed her about what happened.
“They said it was under investigation, and they were looking at the cameras, but never mentioned that my daughter had been assaulted by a grown man,” Hayes said.
The incident reportedly started as an argument between Hayes’ daughter and another student, something the mother described as typical “girl gossip.” Despite no physical altercation between the students, Hayes says the assistant principal intervened, using unnecessary force.
Hayes’ daughter suffered a concussion, along with bruises to her head, arm, and collarbone.
In another viral video from 2023, a Beck Junior High School female student was attacked without provocation by another female student.
The video shows one girl repeatedly hitting another student while others stand by and watch.
“Very frustrating, very outrageous and horrible, very horrible,” Nurys Valdes said in Spanish.
“I saw her so defenseless and the other girl was hitting her hard and she didn’t defend herself,” Valdes said.
The incident happened at Beck Junior High in Katy ISD.
But instead of a deeper investigation into what appears to be systemic issues of violence and sexual misconduct, James Cross, the newly elected Katy ISD Board of Trustees president, appears focused on window dressing.
Cross’ objective now is to “make school board meetings boring again” by steering clear of politics and focusing on issues like maximizing the efficacy of the STAAR test, improving minority participation in AP classes and lower district drop-out rates.
In the meantime, the Katy, TX community continues to report new incidences of physical assaults on their students that Katy ISD has handled poorly or that have not been given appropriate attention.
Gianfrancesco has vowed not to stop until these concerns are heard and his daughter is not only fully exonerated of the charges against her, but also receives justice. Gianfrancesco has also retained legal counsel and is doing the necessary discovery to gather the evidence needed. The majority of the Katy, TX community appears to have the Gianfrancesco family’s back, circulating a Change.org petition demanding Katy ISD reform their policies, and mounting a crowdfunding campaign to help the Gianfrancescos with the legal fees.
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