Ills Too Easily Shared
(From Opinion page, March 31, 1998): The first name of a former Colville (Wash.) High School wrestling coach mentioned in an editorial on Monday was incorrect. He should have been identified as Monty Jones.
A dubious deal between Colville School District and a controversial wrestling coach gives each party something it wants, but little comfort to anyone else. Tony Jones, suspended with pay last fall for unspecified reasons, has resigned effective Aug. 31. In an agreement with the district, he promises not to sue and it promises if another prospective employer checks references, it won’t mention the reasons for the suspension or why the district considered firing Jones.
The coach attracted public attention in 1996, when one of his wrestlers head-butted a referee. Later that season, another Colville wrestler, while under suspension for biting an opponent, competed anyway, costing Colville a share of the Frontier League championship. District officials have said only that Jones’ suspension and ultimate resignation arose from citizens’ complaints. The district has reported the details to the state Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Whatever those details are, they obviously would be of legitimate interest to a prospective employer. Another school district, getting no recommendation from Colville, might sense a red flag and go to the SPI’s office for more information. But what about, say, a nonprofit organization looking for a youth programs director? Just ask Spokane Community College about the risks of hiring with insufficient information. Earlier this month, SCC refused to rehire a part-time mathematics teacher who, it discovered by chance, had had his public school teaching certificate yanked over a relationship with a 16-year-old girl in Wilbur, Wash.
Community college instructors don’t need the state teaching certificate required in the public schools, so SCC never found out that Curtis John Brennan’s had been revoked. Or that the SPI’s office refused in February to reinstate it because he still won’t admit the inappropriateness of his relationship with a teenager.
The community college administration found out about Brennan’s past only because the girl, now enrolled at SCC, spotted him on campus and told officials about it. In January, SCC reassigned Brennan to off-campus duties until his contract expired this month.
Just as the public school system had ridded itself of a problem by revoking Brennan’s credentials, so the Colville schools have ridded themselves of a problem by cutting a deal with Coach Jones. Unfortunately, as SCC’s experience shows, such actions do nothing to prevent those problems from popping up elsewhere.
Society functions more smoothly when its members are accountable for their behavior, not just within the boundaries of their individual relationships with one another but in their larger roles as part of the community.
, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Doug Floyd For the editorial board