Superintendent Upholds Suspension

WAITSBURG - In the latest development involving this fall's controversial volleyball coaches' suspension, the Waitsburg School District superintendent has upheld the high school principal's decision to dismiss the three women for the remainder of the 2010 season.

Former head coach Jessie Buehler and her sister, assistant coach Katie Buehler, have appealed the superintendent's ruling, insisting they were suspended without cause and were not given a fair hearing before the suspension decision was made.

That means the case of the first coaching staff suspension in the district's sports history will now come before the Waitsburg school board as the next step in the administrative appeal process. The district has 10 days from receiving the coaches' appeal to hold the hearing.

Meanwhile, Prescott Athletics Director Jack Smiley said he was not consulted about the suspension before the decision was made and that he strongly disagrees with it. He expressed his disappointment at the Waitsburg superintendent's latest ruling.

"I don't feel good about the way the whole thing went down," he said.

Waitsburg and Prescott high schools have a sports combine that brings together players, coaches and resources from both districts. Although the coaches were contract employees of the Prescott School District, sports combine rules allow the combine partner where the practices and home games take place (in this case Waitsburg) to preside over matters of discipline.

Waitsburg School District Superintendent Dr. Carol Clarke said it is her understanding Waitsburg High School Principal and Athletics Director Stephanie Wooderchak did communicate with Smiley before the suspension decision and must have made the suspension decision over his objections.

This part of the Waitsburg- Prescott sports combine's disciplinary procedures may be reviewed by the districts for possible changes, Clarke said.

The Buehlers and Tressa Robbins were suspended on Nov. 15 after a parent of one of the volleyball players filed a complaint alleging her daughter was the target of a bullying effort instigated by the coaches.

The Times contacted the family at the time, but the mother and daughter declined to comment for the record.

Wooderchak investigated the complaint and took statements from the varsity players at the meeting, concluding that they represented enough evidence to suspend the coaches with cause even though other, lesser disciplinary options were at her disposal.

In a previous interview, Clarke said although district policies allow it up to 30 days for a response to a parent's complaint, the situation required immediate action, and the level of disciplinary action was appropriate under the circumstances.

On Dec. 1, Clarke held a hearing lasting almost six hours. In it, she heard from the volleyball coaches, from Smiley, from football head coach Jeff Bartlow and some of the volleyball players who were present at the controversial Nov. 13 team meeting.

Most were called as witnesses by the volleyball coaches' attorney, Mike Hubbard, and reportedly spoke favorably on their behalf.

A tape of the hearing has not been made public. The Times has requested one from the district under the Freedom of Information Act, but some of the testimony may be protected by privacy laws. The district has told the newspaper it will respond to the request in late January under a requirement to do so within 20 business days of the request.

On Dec. 17, Clarke wrote her decision regarding the suspension saying she believes the Buehlers and Robbins were suspended with cause for singling out a player and encouraging her teammates to harass her. She also ruled that Wooderchak followed due process in her investigation, and the coaches were given an opportunity to give their side of the story.

"By your own admission, you singled out a member of your WP volleyball team, (...), and subjected her to demeaning, humiliating, intimidating and harassing comments before the entire varsity squad," Clarke wrote in her decision letter to the coaches.

"Your actions were intentional; indeed coach Jessie Buehler told her (the player) privately that you were going to place her in a situation whereby she would have to listen to others tell her things about which she would not like hearing."

Clarke's letter went on to say that assistant coach Katie Buehler started the team meeting making inappropriate, humiliating and intimidating comments to the player, one of the team captains who had been benched just before the meeting.

The superintendent alleged the coaches then urged the players to make "similar hurtful" statements and presented no evidence at the Dec. 1 hearing that "you (coaches) tried to stop the comments."

Hubbard took strong exception to the district's allegations in his response to Clarke's decision, saying it "is unsupported by the evidence and contrary to law.

"You apparently gave no weight to the testimony of (Prescott) Athletics Director Jack Smiley or Coach Bartlow, both of whom supported the Buehlers and explained the dynamics of coaching student athletes," Hubbard wrote.

"If left to stand, your opinion would present an impossible, limiting precedent for coaches mentoring players and bringing discipline to their teams," he wrote.

Hubbard said in an interview that Katie Buehler may have confirmed for the district that the coaches had a meeting and that a player was subject to criticism, but her lawyer said she did not admit to making "demeaning, intimidating or humiliating remarks" nor that she tried to model any sort of behavior in front of the players.

Although an analysis of 10 players' statements obtained by the Times under the Freedom of Information Act (see related story) confirms that the coaches singled out a player for criticism, none of the players characterized the comments at the meeting as "demeaning, humiliating, intimidating and harassing." One girl even described the comments as "respectful."

Hubbard said the district did not link any of its findings from Wooderchak's investigation to state law that defines and prohibits "bullying, harassment and intimidation" using specific standards.

A Times' review of the district's letter of suspension and Clarke's ruling confirms this. But in a separate interview, Clarke said the coaches made and allowed several critical comments aimed at the single-out player, making their treatment of the player repetitive and persistent - one of the standards used to define alleged "bullying, intimidation and harassment."

In her Dec. 17 letter, Clarke also said Wooderchak gave the coaches a chance to respond in a meeting on Oct. 15 to charges made in a complaint by the benched player's mother and that head coach Jessie Buehler declined to respond to the allegations upon the instructions of a lawyer.

"I conclude that in essence you had the opportunity to respond but chose not to do so," Clarke wrote.

But Hubbard contends his clients received no required notice that the meeting was an official hearing, and Smiley said that by the time the coaches were asked to respond to the charges against them, the decision to suspend them had already been made. Hubbard said the opportunity to tell their side of the story should have occurred before that decision.

Smiley said he believes the coaches faced a challenging situation that would have been hard to handle any other way.H

e and several other coaches in the Touchet Valley have said meetings at which players get criticized in front of the team by the coaches themselves or by other players are fairly common, and don't pass the test of harassment. Sometimes, they said, it's the only way to get the whole team back on track.

But Clarke contends the coaches had other disciplinary means at their disposal, some of which they used when they benched the player for a game and took away her co-captain status. The critical treatment of the player during the Nov. 13 team meeting went too far, she said.

"We would have been fine if they hadn't taken that extra step," she said.

Clarke said since the suspension has been served and the Buehlers' contract as WP coaches has ended, she has ordered the Letter of Suspension removed from their coaching personnel files.

The appeal is the coaches' next step in the school district's administrative equivalent of legal due process.