Coach denies he forced wrestlers to shave their heads
Parents of a Winston Churchill High School wrestler filed a complaint Tuesday against the principal with the county school system, after she fired the head wrestling coach last week.
Coach Brandon Shapiro, who wrestled at Churchill in the early and mid-2000s and was a state wrestling champion in 2002 and 2003, said he was fired Thursday.
Since then, students and parents have rallied in support of the first-year head coach, and circulated a petition demanding that he be reinstated...
...Shapiro was fired Jan. 6.
"Since then, there's been a huge uproar," Shapiro said. "I've had nearly unanimous support. The entire wrestling team, parents, teachers signed the petition. In total, around 1,000 signatures. I've never had anything like this happen to me in my entire experience."
From the article that's linked to this post:
ReplyDeleteShapiro said he brought a razor to school Dec. 20 and shaved the heads of two wrestlers, both of whom "were willing and have signed affidavits to that effect." "I shaved some of the kids' heads on the team," Shapiro said Wednesday. "It's a team bonding thing, wrestlers always shave their head or dye their hair. So I brought a razor into school; some of the kids asked me to do it."
Questions:
1. Were these affidavits signed BEFORE the heads were shaved? Who signed them? The parents? One would hope so considering the wrestlers are most likely minors.
2. What adult in his right mind thinks it's appropriate to not only shave a kid's head but to do it at school? The kids asked him to do it. Shouldn't a responsible adult know when to say no?
3. Is this team bonding or is it hazing/bullying? Are these "rituals" as the father quoted in the article said appropriate in a high school? Should they be encouraged by coaches?
Personally I think the correct decision was made given the facts as presented in the article. Curious to read what others might think.
Standard wrestler behavior at Churchill to shave heads, mohawk etc... for a meet. Been doing it for years.
ReplyDeleteanonymous 3:52 is a Churchill teacher, right? Curious to know why you don't admit where you work.
ReplyDeleteCoach Shapiro is among a select group of best loved coaches at Churchill in recent years - unlike some of the other sports programs - he has earned the trust, support, and respect of the majority of parents and kids - his coaching is holistic in nature - he coaches the entire kid (the sport, the mental aspects, self-esteem, intellect, etc...) -
ReplyDelete...it was a haircut - hair trimmer (not a razor) - kids at Churchill in La Cross, Cross County, Football have had their hair cut in association with their teams for years - nothing new or special here (except of course the action taken by the school) - an over reaction that has had horrible impact on the kids - this has been really, really hard for them
Ditto the theater kids when they lost their long time drama director. Nothing new here. More of the same from Churchill.
ReplyDeleteWow, how sad! Sounds like we have a teacher who knows how to connect with the kids and motivate them. Maybe he went about it wrong -- should've probably left it to some parents to organize/do -- but he's new and shouldn't have been fired, it seems to me.
ReplyDeleteIs anyone willing to talk about this publically? I am a reporter with NBC4 doing a story on this today. My name is Chris Gordon. Please call my cell phone at 202-437-6033 or send me an email at chris.gordon@nbcuni.com
ReplyDeletehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/22/AR2011012203737.html?hpid=editorialpromo
ReplyDelete