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Health & Fitness

Part Two of I Feel Bad the Girls Got Hurt.. (detailed version is on Wordpress)

 Here it is in a nutshell…..I will elaborate on WordPress and a more concise format here on the Patch.  

For every statement I have made, I have the corroborating documentation in the form of text, email, photo, video, phone log , rule or law.  

The coach violated my children's FEDERAL FERPA LAW RIGHTS, by contacting their personal tumbling coach and trying to change their schedule.  A school district employee contacts a student's personal coach to change their schedule because she wants to change her practice time.  She goes as far as to ask the lesson be scheduled on specific days that are convenient for the her, the coach. 

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I did not authorize any employee of the school district to contact and or change my girls private tumbling lessons. 

Imagine if all the school district employees called and rescheduled your children's appointments without your knowledge or authorization. 

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How brazen is this coach to just think she can intervene into my personal life and schedule?  Brazen or unstable?

A federal violation without action from school administration. 

After that first email from the coach she continued to torture my girls.  She ostracized and ignored my girls and  made their teammates ignore them.  There was abusive behavior on that team from the coach’s “favorites”.  It was documented and reported.  I reported my concerns to guidance for intervention.  Nothing was done to help the girls. 

There are a lot of inappropriate attacks from the coach towards my girls and myself last season.

She was not recommended for re-hire but the middle school did re-hire her as part time coaches are hired at the middle school not through the district.  I kept my focus on the safety concerns to no avail.  The new Superintendent placated my husband and I.   

The superintendent stated a second coach would be at tryouts because of safety concerns.  But there wasn’t.  

The Superintendent vehemently stated to me that “he spoke with the league and middle school cheer does not have to follow any rules”.    Then what criteria exactly is used at competitions?  The coaches can’t have all these rogue cheer teams or do they? 

The Superintendent LIED right to my face. He repeated the  statement THREE times.  “the middle school cheer teams do not have any rules they have to abide by.  I spoke with the ----- ----- League."

I just could not understand why administration was clouded regarding this coach?

The answer, EGO and self-preservation. 

Here it is:

             Middle school coaches are supervised by the AD/Administration of the Middle School.  Our school happens to fall in the ----  ------- League.  This league has rules and by-laws.  For Cheer or Spirit as it is called, they follow the NFHS guidelines and those set for the by the NHIAA Spirit Committee.

Per the NHIAA Spirit committee, ALL Spirit COACHES must take an annual mandatory RULES Changes Safety Course.  If the coach does not take the course, their team is “GROUND BOUND”, meaning their feet do not leave the mat, and unable to compete. 

At the high school level, the NHIAA SPIRIT COMMITTEE governs the Spirit coaches.  At the middle school level they are governed by their middle schools.    

It is the responsibility of the middle school AD/Administration to make sure that their coaches obtain all the necessary certifications and complete the required courses. 

This did not happen at our middle school.  We competed and WON. The LEAGUE trophy.  We were not eligible to compete.  Our school AD, is the PRESIDENT of the LEAGUE.  He also received AD of the year last year.   

I did not seek out this information.  A coach who is also a spirit judge informed me that the coach had NOT completed the required safety course.

THIS MEANS THAT THE PRESIDENT OF THE LEAGUE DID NOT HAVE HIS EMPLOYEE COMPLETE THE NECESSARY TRAINING TO COACH.  THE CHEER TEAM DID COMPETE AND WIN.  THEY WOULD HAVE TO FORFEIT THE TROPHY BY THE RULES SET FORTH OF THE LEAGUE. 

My safety concerns were disregarded.  Request for a  second coach at tryouts was disregarded. We were lied to.   

The coach DID make the comment “ I wish I had a gun so I could go over there and shoot them” to the middle school athlete at tryouts.

The comment was overheard by an athlete in the group, repeated to her parent.  The parent confirmed the comment to the school SAU and District HR person via telephone interview.

The coach was allowed to stay as an employee and remained as coach. 

The coach and AD orchestrated a third day of tryouts with the direct intent to PREVENT my girls and the girl who repeated the comment from participating on the team.

The AD and Coach did NOT ask any of the cheer coaches from our own high school to be judges. at the tryouts.  They had two high school girls that were on the middle school team, one of which was abusive to another girl on the cheer team the previous season assist and judge, along with the AD, the school nurse and a person from the town cheer . 

We have a JV and  a Varsity Cheer coach, neither of which was asked to judge tryouts. 

Instead we have peers (which were told by their HS coaches NOT TO PARTICIPATE IN THE MIDDLE SCHOOL TRYOUT PROCESS), a school nurse, a town cheer director and the AD.  NONE OF WHICH HAVE ANY FORM OF CHEER OR TUMBLING CERTIFICATION.  The HS JV Coach is LEVEL 5 USASF Tumbling Certified. 

What a disgrace.

My girls were on that team for two years. They have high school varsity team level skills.  However, the coach took her ENTIRE TOWN Cheer TEAM for the middle school.  Can we say conflict of interest? 

My girls tumbling coaches at the tumbling gym, our own  JV HIGH SCHOOL CHEER COACH and the Cheer Coach from the top middle school cheer team in the league. 

I have received texts since I posted the first part of the blog from parents.  I will quote one, as they all say the same thing:

             “If you had kept your mouth shut your girls would have made the cheer team”. 

My girls were cut only to separate me from the coach and middle school.  their solution, they hurt the kids.

Are you kidding me, this is what the solution is?  To hurt the children?  Excellent example we are setting. 

The following day I went to Concord to the Department of Education and filed a complaint.  I could not trust  this district in protecting  my children.   

It is difficult to be brief.  There is SO MUCH that was done by this coach.  This coach forever changed the trajectory of my girls lives.  

Sadly,  is not finished yet, my girls finally documented in a school assignment school some of what was done to them by the coach and their teammates.  After interview confirmation by the middle school administration of the bullying. They came back with “no finding of bullying”.   I have no words for their behavior. 

For confirmation that I have all supporting documentation to statements I make, attached is a GROUP TEXT sent by the Coach.  Coach’s comments are in PINK.  My comments are in BLUE.  I had forwarded a copy to school administration.  No action was taken.

My daughters wanted me to write this blog.  They wanted people to know what LIARS the school administration and the coach are.  They wanted people to know that they followed the rules, worked hard, were good team mates and their reward was to be ignored, demeaned and lied to.

These adults, our school district employees, destroyed these young girls for their own self preservation. 

I blame myself every minute of every day for what has happened to my girls. In trying to prevent someone from getting hurt by addressing safety concerns, I hurt my own children. They were nothing to these people, school district employees.  They were invaluable, expendable and they became collateral damage.

 

                                                  

 

 

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