Abuse Testimony, but BOE Reappoints CHS Coach Anyway!

I am surprised there is not a thread on this yet. I am too tired to post the Village Green link, but I find it awful that the BOE would reappoint coaches, who were under internal investigation earlier in the year, due to parental allegations, after listening to testimony from current and former players and parents. How does that happen exactly? Should protecting our children not be a BOE priority? It sure hasn't been in the past, but this is a new panel, right ? Why do we allow the abuse of adults at the cost of our kids? It just makes no sense, so what am I missing???

villagegreennj.com/schools-kids/fire-parents-players-columbia-hs-baseball-coach-reappointed/?fb_action_ids=10153025581668654&fb_action_types=og.comments

This is a legitimate issue, and not sour grapes because 'children aren't playing well' as implied by some of the coaches parent supporters.

moose said:

This is a legitimate issue, and not sour grapes because 'children aren't playing well' as implied by some of the coaches parent supporters.

Agree. We know a lot of the kids/families that testified against this coach and I have absolute confidence in their reports.

Reposting a comment: "Just a few points: I know the parents who raised these issues personally, and I know their son's abilities playing baseball. I fully support their actions and I have heard similar complaints from other parents and players. The parents concerns are real and the BOE needs to take action against the baseball coaches.

I also know that a number of potential players were bullied at tryouts, and decided at that time that they didn't want to play on the team.

The head of the local baseball program is wrong. What is "delusional" here is the notion that bullying coaching "styles" helps build men. This behavior must stop.

If the same allegations had been made against an academic teacher, he or she would be fired. It is time we stop this cycle of bullying behavior in youth sports before more of the boys exposed to it grow up to become abusive men and abusive coaches."

The BOE are starting the process of coming up with a code of conduct for coaches. This is a good and necessary first step. The AD should then be required to evaluate coaches with respect to the code of conduct.

Secondly, testimony by people in support of and in opposition to a coach sort of misses the point. If coach treats 95% of the players well and legitimately bullies the remaining 5%, then that coach should be fired. This means that allegations of misconduct need to be reported in detail and investigated promptly.

Finally, after seeing the results of this BOE meeting, I am quite sure that if this ever happens to my son, I will hire a lawyer and escalate the matter to the highest levels possible. The last thing I would want is a "he said-she said" BOE hearing on the matter.

And at the same time, we need to make sure that coaches are accorded due process. There are more than a few parents who think their son is the next big thing in sport and react very poorly when he is does not get a lot of playing time. This underscores the need for prompt reporting of issues and equally prompt investigation.

Similar allegations have been made against academic teachers and they have not been fired (can think of one at Tuscan - went all the way to the superintendent over several years - and one at MMS)

Really disturbing, if true, is the claim the coach sabotaged one his player's chances for a college offer. Isn't that the ultimate metric of success for a high school coach, moving kids to the next level?

justmelaura said:

villagegreennj.com/schools-kids/fire-parents-players-columbia-hs-baseball-coach-reappointed/?fb_action_ids=10153025581668654&fb_action_types=og.comments

http://villagegreennj.com/schools-kids/fire-parents-players-columbia-hs-baseball-coach-reappointed/?fb_action_ids=10153025581668654&fb_action_types=og.comments

Had an experience with a bully teacher at MMS, who had a pattern of this behavior with certain other kids. Had numerous meetings and, all the way up the line, they denied there was any problem at all (because if they admitted it, they'd actually have to do something about it). The teacher is still there.

Part of the problem, I think, is that very few (if any) others spoke up.

In this case many have spoken up but no action has been taken. The baseball coaches need to go, before the season starts. The facts are corraborated and irrefutable. Those who are effected by this do not understand why the coaches were unanimously approved.

moose said:

In this case many have spoken up but no action has been taken. The baseball coaches need to go, before the season starts. The facts are corraborated and irrefutable. Those who are effected by this do not understand why the coaches were unanimously approved.

I don't understand it either. I find it very troubling. Good kids, strong athletes, strong families........very credible (IMHO).

And this is NOT a matter of playing time for any of those concerned. It's a behavioral issue only.

My son was complaining about this last year to us, on behalf of his friends who play. He was pretty angry that this was being allowed. One of my friends actually sent her child to private school to play baseball, just because of this abusive atmosphere, otherwise he would've been at CHS.

@callista, they are not the only ones to have done that, I assure you.

After listening to Monday's public speaks, it does seem like something is amiss, particularly with the level of investigation that occurred. But none of us has the benefit of knowing what the BOE has heard that cannot be discused in public.
I have no horse in this race, but my guess is that these coaches are going to live under a microscope for at least the next several months, with lots of eyes and smart phone lenses trained on them. That should lead to either confirmation of the charges (and dismissal) or an improvement in behavior, either of which would be positive. (Of course, if the allegations are unfounded, that would be evident as well).
However this turns out, I credit those who spoke out. It was obviously not easy for them.

With several instances in the past of students and parents bringing major concerns to the BOE, i.e. FNL debacle, SOMS teacher firings, and this current situation, we seem to be telling these children that they don't matter, and that they will never get anywhere following the rules. The first priority of the BOE should be student welfare, not covering the asses of adults who should know better.

I believe the BOE wants to do the right thing for the children. I really do. This is a deep and complex situation, and the number of families and complaints cannot be swept under the rug.

They've ignored large numbers of parents, teachers, and students impassioned requests for help and guidance several times before. In fact, if anyone can tell me of an instance in which the BOE listened and acted on the above, please post and tell us about it!

An independent investigation is being done by district in house counsel. This is good as it is out of the hands of the A.D. Counsel was tasked to do this by BOE.

How is an investigation by in-house counsel independent?

Great question. As one who is representing interests of the District, that cannot be construed as "Independent".

callista said:

With several instances in the past of students and parents bringing major concerns to the BOE, i.e. FNL debacle, SOMS teacher firings, and this current situation, we seem to be telling these children that they don't matter, and that they will never get anywhere following the rules. The first priority of the BOE should be student welfare, not covering the asses of adults who should know better.

Let me start by saying that I don't know a thing about this particular issue. I have only read the Village Green article. My comments below are NOT about this issue in particular. I am speaking in general.

We all the know the story about the Boy Who Cried Wolf, right? Sadly, there seems to be a decent population of perpetual complainers in this town. Some parents find fault with everything...and make a huge deal out of every issue that their kids face. Some are over-involved helicopter parents. Others are just entitled a$$wipes. Some just go from zero to sixty on any given topic and feel they are experts in all ways. Sure these people exist everywhere, but for whatever reason, it seems like Maplewood/South Orange houses a bigger population. I feel this constant squacking ruins it for the parents who have legitimate issues.

Well, independent of administration answerable to BOE and overseen by State Dept of Education under rules of anti-bullying law. Families can request a hearing by dept of education as well. Who else should investigate?

I agree that complaints are serious and require a full vetting. This is the next step. I agree that it is distressing that they were reappointed but nothing will stop them being in appointed if this further investigation finds reason to.

The best part of the article, which seemed very one-sided to me (as is the thread title here), was this quote by Coach Fischetti:

“In 16 years in this community I’ve never been accused of any of these things", he said. “If there was a history…I would think that they would have shown up before tonight.”

BINGO.

I heartily concur with Coach Fischetti who was the freshman coach for many years before he became the Varsity coach as well as being a respected PE teacher. How is it that freshmen didn't complain or run to their parents when they were clearly much younger? (My son graduated high school in 2010 and was on Coach Fischetti's freshman team and played varsity under then Coach Busichio and Coach Becht. Coach Fischetti didn't change (neither did Coach Becht) but clearly the caliber and maturity of the players changed. We seem to have become a community of making sure participation awards are still given out even in high school. Not a good idea. Again my opinion. Wendy Lauter

[edited to change my son's graduation year and then change it back to what I think is the correct date, oops]

So, that means the significant number of families that came forward are all entitled whiners and made up the stories of a pattern of behavior by the coaches?

It is 5 years since your direct experience. Just saying. Much can change in 5 years.

moose said:

So, that means the significant number of families that came forward are all entitled whiners and made up the stories of a pattern of behavior by the coaches?

Bingo!!!

That's great that you are able to summarily dismiss a serious situation. Kudos!

Drebin said:

moose said:

So, that means the significant number of families that came forward are all entitled whiners and made up the stories of a pattern of behavior by the coaches?

Bingo!!!

It means that each allegation should be thoroughly investigated by an independent party. The anti-bullying lawyer for the district should be able to do this. If a coach bullies 1 player or 100, the coach needs to reform or move on. In these situations, the facts surrounding the allegations are all that matter. No amount of supportive testimony should have any bearing on that.