Lindsey Post
Pleaded guilty and sentenced to five years in prison; lifetime sex-offender registration. A Collin County jury sentenced the former McKinney ISD athletic trainer after she admitted sexually assaulting a 14-year-old student-athlete she was treating for a sports injury, ending a case that began with the girl’s January disclosure to her parents.
Introduction
Lindsey Elizabeth Post, 36, of McKinney, Texas, is a former athletic trainer at McKinney North High School who pleaded guilty in October 2026 to sexually assaulting a 14-year-old female student and received a five-year prison sentence from a Collin County jury . Post admitted two counts of sexual assault of a child and one count of improper relationship between an educator and student — second-degree felonies each carrying two to twenty years . Her convictions require lifetime sex-offender registration and a lifetime protective order barring her from contacting the girl or her family . The case is adjudicated: guilty pleas were entered and the jury’s sentence is final.
Background Information
Post met the victim in 2025, her first year working at McKinney North High School, where the girl was a freshman student-athlete . The girl broke her arm playing volleyball in June 2025 and began receiving physical therapy at the school that August at the school’s suggestion; Post was assigned as her trainer . On January 27, 2026, the girl told her parents about the abuse and they contacted McKinney police, whose investigators discovered inappropriate messages between Post and the student . Post was arrested in January 2026 and charged with sexual assault of a child under 17 and improper relationship between an educator and student; she was released on bond .
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
During two days of testimony, jurors heard how Post used her position of authority to befriend the girl as a “trusted adult,” escalated to sexual grooming via tens of thousands of text messages, and physically assaulted the 14-year-old on campus and in the back seat of her car while driving her to school-sponsored events . Prosecutors said Post betrayed the trust of the girl’s family and the community, abused the girl repeatedly over months, and knew her actions were wrong — as evidenced in 66,000 pages of text messages, some explicitly sexual, some declaring love for the girl, and others suggesting ways to hide the activity while acknowledging it was wrong . “She was years away from being able to consent to anything that happened to her in the back seat of that car,” prosecutors said of the girl Post confessed to assaulting . The defense argued Post was sick and needed help, with a sex-offender expert testifying she had “a thinking error” but a “low risk” of reoffending, and her attorney suggesting “repressed homosexual desires” prompted the abuse; Post was engaged to marry a man at the time and did not testify . While out on bond, Post violated her release conditions by speaking with the victim on the phone, prosecutors said .
Public Reaction and Consequences
The school district acted within weeks of the arrest: Post was placed on administrative leave, and the McKinney ISD Board of Trustees voted on February 26, 2026 to terminate her employment . The student’s family filed a $1 million lawsuit against Post and McKinney ISD alleging sexual assault and gross negligence by the district; the suit claims Post hugged and kissed the student at school before taking her to her car, where multiple sexual assaults allegedly occurred . Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis said: “This woman used her position as a high school athletic trainer to groom and sexually assault a student she was treating… Adults who abuse the trust placed in them by students will be held accountable” .
Current Status
Post pleaded guilty on October 16, 2026, per the Collin County District Attorney’s Office, as her trial began in the 366th District Court of Judge Tom Nowak . After deliberating, jurors sentenced her to five years in state prison on one sexual-assault count, three years probated to ten years of community supervision on the second, and two years probated to ten years on the improper-relationship count, with a $10,000 fine on each charge . The prison sentence began with credit for the 221 days she had already served in the Collin County jail . She must register as a sex offender for life and is subject to the lifetime protective order .
Impact on Their Career/Life
Post’s termination, felony convictions and lifetime registration permanently end any career in school athletics, and the pending $1 million civil suit against her and the district keeps the case in court into 2027 . The case added McKinney ISD to the list of Texas districts whose trusted-adult hiring roles — trainer, coach, teacher — became the instrument of abuse, a pattern Texas Scorecard documents across hundreds of educator-misconduct cases statewide . For the victim’s family, the jury’s rejection of probation in favor of prison time on the lead count stands as the case’s public judgment on the abuse .
Sources
- Texas Scorecard, “Jury Gives McKinney ISD Trainer 5 Years For Sexual Assault of Student,” October 30, 2026 — source
- CBS News Texas, “Former McKinney ISD athletic trainer sentenced to 5 years for sexually assaulting student, prosecutors say,” October 2026 — source
- FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth, “Former McKinney ISD athletic trainer sentenced for sexually abusing 14-year-old victim,” October 2026 — source