Canton McKinley High School Head Football Coach Marcus Wattley and five assistant coaches are suing Canton City school officials and others for spreading 鈥渇alse, malicious and extremely defamatory statements鈥� that cost them their jobs and their reputations.
The lawsuit is seeking compensation for the damage done to the coaches' reputations, lost wages and diminished earning capacity, and for their mental distress, pain and anguish.
Wattley and six assistant coaches were fired June 3 after trying to force a player to eat pork against his religious beliefs during a May 24 practice, after missing an earlier, non-mandatory weight training session.
Wattley and former assistant coaches Cade Brodie, Romero Harris, Frank McLeod, Zachary Sweat and Tyler Thatcher are represented by Peter Pattakos, who said the incident has been completely mischaracterized and called the situation 鈥渙utrageous.鈥�
The sixth former assistant coach who lost his job, Josh Grimsley, is named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
According to Pattakos, Wattley and his coaching staff had been trying to help the player, who despite pending NCAA Division I college football scholarship offers was 鈥渃onsistently falling short of the program鈥檚 basic standards of conduct.鈥�
The , says that misconduct extended to disrespecting his teammates, being insubordinate with coaches and 鈥渃orrelated with the player鈥檚 increasing marijuana use that was not only well known to his teammates but only weeks earlier had been reported to the coaches by [the player鈥檚] father.鈥�
Pattakos said the coaches tried talking to him, but weren鈥檛 getting through.
On May 24, Pattakos said the coaches believed the student showed up to practice 鈥渞eally high,鈥� and realized 鈥渢hey needed to do something to get through to this kid or he wasn鈥檛 going to be on the team.鈥� So Wattley decided to give the player the 鈥渞oyal treatment.鈥�
It鈥檚 a punishment in which the player sits in the center of the room eating while the rest of his teammates work out hard around him. The 鈥渞oyal treatment鈥� was something Wattley had seen used at the University of Akron, Pattakos said.
In this case, the player was told to eat a pepperoni pizza while the rest of the team worked out and watched him. Pattaoks contends that when the player said he doesn鈥檛 eat pork, the coaches offered him chicken nuggets. The lawyer said it was ultimately the player鈥檚 choice to peel the pepperoni off the pizza and eat it.
鈥淭he fact that this has been turned around on these coaches into an accusation that they forced a student to eat pork against his religion, it's just been just shocking, devastating and outrageous,鈥� Pattakos told 91福利 Thursday.
Shortly after the incident, the unnamed high school player鈥檚 father, Kenny Walker, and attorney Edward Gilbert announced the family鈥檚 intent to sue the Canton City School District for violating the student鈥檚 First Amendment religious rights. As a Hebrew Israelite, eating pork or even the pork residue left on the pizza by the pepperoni, is against his religion.
At the time, Gilbert told Ideastream that 鈥渆veryone knows this kid does not eat pork due to his religious beliefs.鈥�
On Thursday, the Canton City School District declined Ideastream鈥檚 request for an interview about the defamation lawsuit, instead pointing to a June statement released after the school board鈥檚 decision to terminate the coaches in which the school district characterized the incident as a 鈥渄emeaning, divisive and misguided approach to instill discipline in our players.鈥�
In the defamation lawsuit, Canton Schools Superintendent Jeff Talbert is named as a defendant, along with Canton City school board members John Rinaldi, Scott Russ, Kim Brown, David Kaminski and Eric Resnickas.
Also named in the suit are Walker and Gilbert, the student鈥檚 father and attorney, and Grimsley, the former coach who Pattakos and the other coaches say brought this firestorm down on them and the team.
Pattakos said Grimsley mischaracterized the incident when he reported it to the school district because he was disgruntled after being passed over for the head coach position in 2019.
鈥淭he real failure here, the biggest failure here is that of the school district officials whose job it was to get to the bottom of this, whose job it was to investigate the truth of this matter,鈥� Pattakos said. 鈥淏ut instead of doing that, they took this as an opportunity to vindicate their own personal preferences.鈥�
Pattakos said Canton school officials saw the situation as an opportunity to replace Wattley with now interim head coach Antonio Hall, so they 鈥渆xploited the situation and ignored the evidence.鈥�
鈥淭hey interviewed three players in this investigation, only three. And we鈥檝e spoken with two of those players who have said that the coaches didn鈥檛 do anything wrong, that the player wasn鈥檛 forced to eat anything, that he was offered chicken as an alternative, that he was free to leave at any time,鈥� Pattakos said. 鈥淭he district ignored the testimony of these eyewitnesses and just proceeded to terminate these coaches.鈥�
