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.
http://www.scribd.com/embeds/83126962/content?start_page=1&view_mode=list&access_key=key-1a6dve0g663orlqlpz6w
Below is a video of Stein discussing his story: