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Thursday, January 20, 2011

NBC4: Local High School Wrestling Coach Fired

UPDATE 1/21/11  4 PM: Mr. Shapiro will return as the Churchill High School wrestling coach on Monday, January 24, 2011 according to an e-mail from Churchill Principal Joan Benz. 

Controversy at Winston Churchill High School over the firing of a wrestling coach.

View more news videos at: http://www.nbcwashington.com/video.

10 comments:

  1. How many situations has Benz screwed up? The boy misses two weeks of practice and is kicked off the team so the dad goes and whines to Benz and while grasping at straws recalls a voluntary hair cutting incident. Benz then bows to the influential dad and fires the coach. What a joke.

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  2. screwed up?

    Is that what you call taking money out of accounts set up as memorials for deceased students and spending the money on logo wear for staff?

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  3. Ignorance.
    You people are just to ignorant.
    The coach shouldn't have cut the boy's hair without parental consent, the boys are MINORS.
    Meaning, even if the boys were okay with it, in Maryland minor basically have no say in what happenens. They need parental or guardian consent first.

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  4. @ brave anonymous commenter - What's your name?

    The parents consented to the students' wrestling. Should parents of students in theater have to consent to every thing that is done to their children when they participate in a play? What about the football team? Is there a consent form for that black paint under the eyes? Consent to cheerleaders getting their fingernails cut? How many consent forms are needed to participate in one activity?

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  5. "Ignorance.
    You people are just to ignorant"

    You can't make up laws as you go along to fit your agenda. There is no such law in Maryland.

    Also keep in mind that the parents of the shaven head boys did not complain. It was the father of the boy who chose not to attend practice for two weeks. Do you think that a football player would be allowed to rejoin the team after two weeks of skipping practices?

    In this case this poor wrestling coach who was one of the best things that happened to the school was sacrificed to the wolves because he was not a school system employee. Another example of kissing the butt of an influential parent.

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  6. UPDATE 1/21/11 4 PM: Mr. Shapiro will return as the Churchill High School wrestling coach on Monday, January 24, 2011 according to an e-mail from Churchill Principal Joan Benz.

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  7. First comment here.

    MCPS is very serious about anything that could be considered hazing. Every new and veteran coach is warned about it each year. Coaches are told that their teams may do nothing that could be considered hazing.

    An entire team voluntarily shaving their head without the coach knowing/participating is very different than the coach having the knowledge and actually doing the shaving of the heads. It's now essentially a team function with some expectation from the authority figure that this is expected to some degree.

    While I don't believe the coach should have been fired, he did show some poor judgement by placing himself in a situation that could be construed as hazing.

    He's new and young. I'd think the better way to handle this would have been to call him into the office, read him the riot act, write him up and let him learn from this situation.

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  8. Channel 4 is reporting that he will return as an unpaid volunteer coach. Not as head coach.

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  9. Lets try this again...first post on this topic.

    MCPS meets with all new and veteran coaches every year and issues guidelines to follow. These include serious warnings about anything that can be construed as hazing. That's the central issue here.

    Since the coach actually did some of the shaving and clearly was involved in the "team bonding", he put himself in a situation that opened himself to accusations of hazing. While clearly not "required" when a coach supports a team action such as all shaving heads it places pressure on everyone else to conform. He entered a grey area here where he was warned not to go(in the eyes of his employer, MCPS).

    Still, he's new, young and by all accounts a decidated and respected coach. The better way to handle this situation would be to call him in the office, read him the riot act some, write him up and send him back out to LEARN, which is what we want all good teachers and coaches to do.

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  10. I agree with what Anonymous: "Ignorance..." posted.

    Was the coach correct for cutting a wrestlers hair? No! The wrestlers and the parents make the decision to shave a wrestlers head. Yes, this is a good bounding thing and the coach should not discourage this. This is a personal thing and maybe a religious thing and the coach should not get involved.

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