A gay man who was fired from his job as the assistant water
polo coach at a California high school over old photos posted to Facebook is
suing the Charter Oak Unified School District for “animus toward gay and
lesbian employees.” An L.A. Times story paints one picture, but the filed court
documents (below) reveal even more, including a dejected student’s wildly
over-protective father whose Facebook trolling seems to have instigated Coach
Stein’s firing, and a comment by the father, a police officer, who reportedly
said, ”Fuck that Faggot, I am going home to print pictures of him.”
The cop, Claremont
Police Officer Joe Maddox, claims the “Fuck that Faggot” comments “are not
factual and are based on speculation and hearsay.”
An article published
last year in the San Gabriel Valley News states:
Maddox did not deny that the incident occurred, but said “It
didn’t happen the way it was described in the complaint.” He would not elaborate
further.
He said the inclusion
of his name and profession in the complaint are an attempt to “sensationalize”
Stein’s lawsuit.
“This has nothing to
do with me as a police officer,” Maddox said. “My personal life and my
professional life are two separate entities and should be treated as such.”
Apparently, to
Officer Maddox, his personal life and professional life are two separate
entities, but Coach Stein’s are not.
Meanwhile, today’s
L.A. Times reports:
A corn dog and a few
drag queens were never meant to wreak such havoc.
But there they were,
captured in photos deemed inappropriate because of their “sexual content.”
It was an August
afternoon and Mitch Stein was asked to see the principal of Covina’s Charter
Oak High School, where he worked as an assistant water polo coach. Someone had
anonymously dropped off printouts of Stein’s Facebook and Myspace pages. The
envelope included a photo of Stein wearing eyeliner and surrounded by men
decked out in bustiers, wigs and makeup. Another showed him at the L.A. County
Fair, pretending to take a large bite of a batter-dipped hot dog.
Harmless photos taken
in good fun, Stein insisted. But administrators weren’t amused. Stein was
fired.
The Times adds:
In the wake of
Stein’s dismissal, parents and students have rallied around the former
assistant coach, who still helps raise funds for the team. At the same time,
the case has revived old accusations of anti-gay sentiments within the school
district’s administration.
Taking the position
seemed a no-brainer to Stein when he began in May 2011. Charter Oak was his
alma mater, he knew the head coach, and his daughter would be attending as a
freshman. He had a lucrative and flexible job as a producer in the TV industry
and years of experience coaching water polo.
He led the boys
junior varsity team through an undefeated summer season and was preparing to
continue his role in the fall when he was summoned by the school’s principal,
Kathleen Wiard. In her possession was the corn dog photo and one of Stein among
drag queens. Stein said Wiard called the photo “obscene” and asked whether he
would approve of a male teacher posing with his daughter in a swimsuit.
“I was like, ‘Now
you’re calling me a pedophile?’ ” Stein said. “How does one have anything to do
with the other?”
And:
“I’ve seen the photos
and I don’t think they’re inappropriate at all,” said Raymond Adams, 43, who
has two sons on the water polo team.
“I don’t agree with homosexuality, but at the same time we
shouldn’t be judging anybody,” Adams said. “His private life has nothing to do
with coaching the water polo team. I believe the school made a huge mistake,
and they should just come forward and admit it and stop wasting the school
district’s money. I see Mr. Stein as a servant to the community and the kids
more than people that I go to church with, including myself.”
While the photos were
not published, we can imagine what the corn dog photos might have looked like,
and Coach Stein is in, well, good company. What Republican candidate for
president hasn’t been photographed with one?
There is a “Bring
Back Coach Mitch Stein” page on Facebook. Coach Stein is on Twitter.
We did some searching
and found, below what appears to be Mitch Stein’s filed court complaint, which
also appeared in the story at the San Gabriel Valley News. The anti-gay animus,
if accurately depicted, is disturbing, to say the least.