On the surface this seems awful and it may be. However, I have some concerns that the mother took it the Facebook route. Believe me, there is a lawsuit with ADA/Special Needs if the things she says are true. There are lawyers in the Shelbyville/Louisville/Frankfort area that have made great livings with Special Needs cases. School superintendents are extremely cognizant of this, as well as, school board attorneys.

 

There's something else here, you can almost bet on it.

How about this story. New coach comes in super excited type A person. Little to no experience with special needs kids. Played for and adopted the philosophy that everyone should be treated alike for fairness and everyone should earn their way. An 8th grade girl went 4-3 in limited action last year against the worst competition I could find for her. After the season a psycho mom bypasses everyone in the chain of command, the principal, the AD and myself and sends a 17 page rant to the super trying to get me fired. Thankfully he sees spade as a spade and i'm back this year. This year I had tryouts and cuts so I can get a good group together and coach without all kinds of loose ends and distractions. This psycho ----- gets admin to force me to bring the girl back! I'm out of here after the season. This junk aint worth it.

If you really are the coach, you should delete that post immediately. Just my two cents.

If you really are the coach, you should delete that post immediately. Just my two cents.

 

Who said I was the coach? For someone with over 4000 posts on a discussion board that's not very observant. Just my 2 cents. Story sound real though doesn't it? As real a chance of being true as the moms facebook?

Aspergers is a disease where the person is usually very anti-social. they are very shy and awkward in many social settings. They are, however, usually very intelligent and can function well in the right understanding environment. There are levels of the anti-social behavior in severity.

 

In tennis, you have to basically officiate your own matches. You have to call faults, out of bounds, etc. sometimes players disagree. This could be very disturbing with someone who has Aspergers. They also may not even communicate the basic offenses when they occur.

 

Although you might make some accommodations with providing officiating, it still could be not possible to do that for every match. I can see where, at times, it is cumbersome for opponents and maybe there are issues in scheduling or playing. I would be interested to know when she played, what really was in place because it would be very unusual for her to do some of the things a player is required to do in HS tennis.

 

There are many ways she could act that just does not allow for fairness to ensue. Now should she have been cut from the team, I have no idea. Maybe there were compromises offered and one side decided that wouldn't do.

 

I have a tremendous amount of empathy to the girl, but I would want to hear all sides before I judged.

I read it as first person. Thanks for clarifying.

So would intentionally punish the child for the actions of their parent...really? UKMF we may disagree a lot but you seem to have a big heart and I don't think there is any way you would take it out on the kid.

 

If I didn't treat this girl any differently than any other child, and her mom tried to get me fired....You're darn right I'm not letting them back on the team. This is my job on the line. Why would I allow someone on the team who's mom is actively looking for a reason to try to have me fired. Sorry. Not happening.

 

Also, it sounds from the post by the mom that she did rather poorly during the tryouts. Maybe she wasn't good enough to be on the team regardless?

On the surface this seems awful and it may be. However, I have some concerns that the mother took it the Facebook route. Believe me, there is a lawsuit with ADA/Special Needs if the things she says are true. There are lawyers in the Shelbyville/Louisville/Frankfort area that have made great livings with Special Needs cases. School superintendents are extremely cognizant of this, as well as, school board attorneys.

 

There's something else here, you can almost bet on it.

 

I am not taking sides, because we only have one side of the story, and that is all we may get. My wife is a teacher, and I have seen some absolute nut-job parents who have nothing better to do than write 17-page complaints not because their child was treated unfairly, but because they were treated the same way as everyone else. I am not willing to side with this parent just because she is good at complaining. I am not writing off her complaint either, but it is under advisement.

If I didn't treat this girl any differently than any other child, and her mom tried to get me fired....You're darn right I'm not letting them back on the team. This is my job on the line. Why would I allow someone on the team who's mom is actively looking for a reason to try to have me fired. Sorry. Not happening.

 

Also, it sounds from the post by the mom that she did rather poorly during the tryouts. Maybe she wasn't good enough to be on the team regardless?

 

Glad you don't coach, because believe me there is ALWAYS a parent(s) that thinks the coach needs to be fired. If you kicked all of those kids off the team you'd run out of players pretty quickly.

 

It's not always the parents of the kids on the bench that want the coach fired either, a lot of the time it's the parents of the best players on the team. As a coach you have to be able to separate the kid from the parent's actions.

 

I'm not saying that she should or shouldn't be on the team here, just that you can't hold the actions of a parent against the kid.

With HIPPA and the laws of student confidentiality in place, the public will not hear the school's side of the story, unless the school wants to subject itself to even bigger legal issues.

 

Just having the information presented, this is awful.

I'm not connecting the dots with this being a health insurance privacy issue. I can't see where HIPPA has anything to do with it. Would the school be wise to keep their yap shut? Sure

School employees have access to confidential medical information regarding disabilities. Discussing the student's disability would be breaking the law. Of course, the district in which I work is run by the board attorney and all trainings and decisions are made from a "least likely to be sued successfully" perspective.

Glad you don't coach, because believe me there is ALWAYS a parent(s) that thinks the coach needs to be fired. If you kicked all of those kids off the team you'd run out of players pretty quickly.

 

It's not always the parents of the kids on the bench that want the coach fired either, a lot of the time it's the parents of the best players on the team. As a coach you have to be able to separate the kid from the parent's actions.

 

I'm not saying that she should or shouldn't be on the team here, just that you can't hold the actions of a parent against the kid.

 

Don't disagree, but there isn't ALWAYS a parent that pens a 17 page complaint to the school board that claims the coach is bullying their child. Someone wants me fired, that's one thing. Someone wants to ruin my career with baseless accusations and slander, well that's a different story entirely.

 

And I'll also note, if the coach DID bully her (I'd still like to know exactly what he supposedly did) and mistreated her in any way, I fully support him getting what he deserves. All we've got at this point is accusations with no examples and her own admission that her daughter did poorly at the tryouts.

Don't disagree, but there isn't ALWAYS a parent that pens a 17 page complaint to the school board that claims the coach is bullying their child. Someone wants me fired, that's one thing. Someone wants to ruin my career with baseless accusations and slander, well that's a different story entirely.

 

And I'll also note, if the coach DID bully her (I'd still like to know exactly what he supposedly did) and mistreated her in any way, I fully support him getting what he deserves. All we've got at this point is accusations with no examples and her own admission that her daughter did poorly at the tryouts.

 

To be fair it was a part time gig coaching tennis not his career.

 

I agree I'd like more info before I decide who I think is right or wrong. I've seen enough power trip coaches and unrealistic parents to know that this could def go either way.

To be fair it was a part time gig coaching tennis not his career.

 

I agree I'd like more info before I decide who I think is right or wrong. I've seen enough power trip coaches and unrealistic parents to know that this could def go either way.

 

You don't think a firing for bullying a disabled kid (whether he really did it or not) would ruin his teaching career?

You don't think a firing for bullying a disabled kid (whether he really did it or not) would ruin his teaching career?

 

If he was fired for that, Yes. If he was just moved from coaching Tennis, No.