Outrage is sweeping through Texas after the state’s high school sports governing body merely gave a slap on the wrist to a Kerrville Tivy High girls’ basketball player who levied a cheap shot on an opposing player that reportedly resulted in a concussion and an extended recovery.

Tivy senior McKenzie Dill leveled unsuspecting South San Antonio High sophomore Destiny Hilliary from behind during a mid-November tournament game. Hilliary collapsed to the floor and stumbled again to the ground after attempting to get up. Video of the incident went viral soon afterward:

No foul was called on the play.

Tivy principal Shelby Balser told the Texas High School Coaches Association executive committee in December that Dill did not intend to injure Hilliary but received a two-game suspension for her actions. South San Antonio officials pushed for a stiffer penalty, and the THSCA approved a motion to send the matter to the University Interscholastic League, which oversees high school sports in Texas.

The UIL handed down an additional two-game ban and probation for the remainder of the season, according to KSAT-TV. UIL chairperson Mike Motheral issued the following statement to the media:

“The motion was for this young lady to be suspended for two district basketball games starting this Friday. So it will be Friday and Tuesday. She also will be on probation, thus if she has anymore flagrant type fouls, she will be automatically suspended for the remainder of the school year and she will receive a reprimand.”

However, many still consider this penalty too light, especially since Hilliary missed nine games after a concussion diagnosis. Doctors also reportedly told her that another concussion could end her career.

HIlliary publicly asked for an apology — one that South San Antonio coach Jacob Alegria told KSAT-TV did not come from either Dill or her mother, Tivy coach Kristy Dill, in the weeks following the incident. Hilliary’s mother, Lupita, told the local television news station that she wants more than an apology.

“I want her charged with assault,” Lupita, who filed a police report in San Antonio, told KSAT-TV.

No charges have been filed against Dill, according to the report, and the investigation remains open.

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The sentencing of 21-year-old Connor Neurauter was supposed to be the end of a long and difficult road for a Kamloops girl and her mother. 

Neurauter, who pleaded guilty Jan. 4 in Kamloops provincial court to a single count of sexual interference with a person under 16, was sentenced to 90 days behind bars — a sentence that won’t begin until May to avoid interfering with his studies at the University of Calgary. 

To the mother, who can’t be identified due to a court-ordered publication ban intended to protect the identity of the victim, the delayed sentencing was the latest concession in what she described as a series of delays and adjournments, which she said were intended to accommodate Neurauter’s busy schedule. 

“It’s been two years — all of these court dates extended, extended, extended,” she said, breaking down in tears. 

“Because of . . . why? ‘Sorry, he’s unavailable for court because he has a hockey tournament. He’s unavailable for court because he has exams. He’s unavailable to come do his plea on his own because he’s in the middle of studying.’

“Let’s postpone his jail sentence until May so he can finish his year of university. Nobody has stood up and said no, during the whole thing — there was not one time where the judge or even the Crown said ‘please, this is not right.’ The victims are the ones who have been paying over and over, every time we went to court.”

Neurauter, who was 18 at the time, was charged in 2016 in connection with an inappropriate relationship he had with a 13-year-old Kamloops girl.

The girl’s mother told Postmedia neither the sentence nor the conviction reflect the true nature of the crime. 

“They make it sound like they were having some sort of non-intercourse sexual relationship — that she was having an affair with an older boy,” she said. 

While the exact details are protected under the publication ban, the victim’s mother is incensed over implications made on social media her daughter was a willing participant in the relationship with Neurauter. 

Under Canadian law, the minimum age to legally consent to sexual activity is 16. 

She described the relationship as a violation of trust by someone her quiet and reserved daughter had looked up to as a big-brother figure.

The victim, her mother said, acquiesced in his demands for nude photos as a desperate measure of self-protection.

“The reason my daughter started sending photos was so that, hopefully, when he requested them, he would not want to see her in person because she was afraid to be with him,” she said. 

“Even in her statement to the court, she said it was much easier to deal with him over a screen than it was in person, and she felt safer.”

Once Neurauter had those photos, he then used the threat of sharing them with others as a means to further control the girl.

The victim eventually confided in her 14-year-old best friend — who began sending nude photos of herself to Neurauter in an attempt to lure him away from the victim. 

Police became involved after the 14-year-old girl informed her mother of the situation. 

During the trial, the 13-year-old’s mother said she and her daughter grew frustrated over delays and adjournments, which the mother said were made to make the process more convenient to Neurauter, who played junior hockey at various levels until 2016, including a stint overseas in Sweden.

On Sept. 23, 2016, Kamloops This Week reported Neurauter — initially charged with sexual interference and possession of child pornography — had a lawyer appear on his behalf during a hearing to request his arraignment be delayed until the following month because he was out of town attending a hockey camp.

Danielle Aubry, executive director with Calgary Communities Against Sexual Abuse, expressed concern over the court’s concessions to Neurauter, given increasing awareness of sexual abuse bias and myths over sexual violence within the justice system. 

“This decision serves to give messages to people that sexual violence is not a serious crime within some segments of the justice system — that the perpetrator’s needs come first and that survivors have little voice within a system that generally already feels quite unsafe for people who experience sexual violence,” she said.

“This decision continues to feed into the reason why Canada has a six per cent reporting rate of sexual violence crimes.”

While the mother said much of the anger surrounds the delayed jail sentence, she’s satisfied her daughter will enjoy at least a modicum of justice. 

“I understood from the get-go that our main goal in doing all of this was to get him some kind of jail time, and to make sure he was listed as a sexual offender,” she said. “I feel the Crown met those goals — the fact that he got jail time was, honestly, almost a bonus.”

The plea deal, which the victim’s mother said dropped the child pornography charge in exchange for a guilty plea for sexual interference, fulfilled both needs. 

Neurauter is also on two-years probation, preventing him from contacting his victims, being in the presence of anyone under age 16 without supervision or visiting public parks and pools.

He was also ordered to register as a sex offender for 10 years and to submit a sample of his DNA to a national criminal database.

The mother also hopes her daughter’s ordeal will help others dealing with similar circumstances, and is immensely proud of the strength and courage the young girl has shown throughout. 

“This whole #MeToo movement has been at our forefront every day for two years,” she said, her voice again breaking. 

“I’m grateful for those people that have come forward — for every person that comes forward, it just means one less person will get hurt.”

bpassifiume@postmedia.com

On Twitter: @bryanpassifiume