I am the first year principal at Sierra High School. Sierra is located in La Jolla, which is a small suburb of San Diego, California. San Diego is extremely diverse with Hispanics being the dominate population; La Jolla is basically white upper class. The area is composed of many successful and wealthy individuals of the San Diego metro area. The student body of the school is 95% white, 3% Asian and 2% other. The parents are very active with school activities and are noted to be quick to respond when controversial situations arise. La Jolla Union High School District has been in a financial crunch the last few years. Money for extra curricular activity programs has been generated from the various booster clubs on campus. One such program is the football program. Most recently, the football booster club raised $100, 000 dollars to go back into the football program. This year they have built a new state of the art press box

Sierra is traditionally known for its academics. Each year a significant number of students achieve National Merit status. They have a significant number of students attending out of state private universities, many of which are Ivy League schools. Though the athletic programs have been successful none have reached the status of its current football team. The football team has established a winning program and started to create a so-called dynasty. A coach of only four years has won two consecutive state titles and currently has this year’s team ranked number one. This last Friday the team won it fourth straight game. The final score of the game was 51-0. Things look good for all the programs at Sierra this year. I am truly enjoying my leadership position within the school. If fact after Friday’s game I thought I was on the top of the world.

The following Monday the coach informed me that he was arrested at a local restaurant after the game on Friday night. He explained the charges were for disobeying a police officer. He explained that he noticed police officers attempting to move along a number of students who had gathered at the parking lot of the restaurant. This is not at all uncommon for as the kids have nothing to do after the football games. The coach explained that he believed that he could have been of some assistance to the officers. He mentioned that he was especially concerned that the two officers were Hispanic and observed the students were not responding to officers’ directions because of this. He believed that a racial condition was escalating. He was shocked to see how the officers took there frustration out on him for intervening and was even more surprised that they followed me into the restaurant to have me arrested. The coach wanted to keep the conversation

That afternoon a local reporter called me asking for information relating Friday’s altercation between the head football coach and the La Jolla police. Adhering to district policies I informed them that all communications regarding educational matters needed to go through the district office public relations specialist. I assured them that the matter was being addressed. Having debriefed the public information director earlier in the day I felt that things were fine and because it was approaching 4:00 pm I needed to get over to the university to attend my doctoral course in educational leadership.

That Tuesday morning I was instantly taken with the front page headlines of the newspaper. The newspaper read “Sierra Head Coach Arrested at Local Bar”. The article continued to read that the coach was verbally abusive with police officers and used racist comments in preventing them to disperse a large mob made up of high school students. Thinking that this was bad enough I continued to read that the Superintendent of the district made direct comments relating to the situation stating that actions like this are uncalled for in the educational sector. Because of the severity of the situation immediate discipline action would be taken. ”Coaches need to model ethics and actions such as this cannot be condoned.”

As I was driving to the office the Superintendent called me and informed me that right or wrong the coach needs to be disciplined for his actions. The superintendent informed me that the district is receiving pressure regarding ethnic group leaders on other matters and she believed this could even escalate those situations further. She even hinted that firing the coach could truly help draw in the support of these ethnic groups. The superintendent thought that since the incident involved racial confrontation we should capitalize on it publicly.

Immediately I called and informed the coach that he would be suspended from his coaching duties. I explained to him that the decision of the school were to release him from his coaching duties. The phone conversation did not go well nor did the next two conversations. The first was from the booster club president who wanted to discuss the “surprising” action taken by the administration. He informed me that he was at the restaurant and assured me the police were out of line. He informed me that he himself being a lawyer was going to represent the coach on a defamation suit. He as well as the rest of the members of the booster club thought the coach did a terrific thing in assisting the students in time of crisis. They feel real confident that they have such a terrific head coach and a principal who supports him.

As I ended my phone call with the booster club president I was addressed by Matt Salmon, captain of the football team. Matt expressed to me the several displeasure of the team regarding the firing of the coach. The team felt the action was unjustified and the boys felt like they needed to take a stance on the dismissal. He informed me that the team held a vote early this morning and decided to protest Friday’s homecoming game by boycotting it.

Questions:

1. What can the principal do to influence the football players to particpate in the upcoming game?
2. Can the principal find a way to support the decision of the superintendent yet continuethe positive relations with the booster club?
3. Is the school justified to hand down reprimands to the head coach?
4. How should have the coach handled the situation to begin with?