By Linda Conner Lambeck
WESTPORT — The school district is under fire for the way suspensions and contract non-renewals have been handled for several coaches at Staples High School.
A Staples senior told the Board of Education on Thursday that several soccer coaches were suspended this fall after the district’s athletic director, VJ Sarullo, received an anonymous tip that he had been assaulted at a players’ retreat in August.
“The AD asked me what happened at the retreat. I told the truth … Ultimately, the school suspended the coaches for the season but did not tell the soccer community why,” the student, Jonathan Costello, told the board.
As a result, he said rumors about the incident have swept through the community, and his family has been accused of entitlement and overreach. He reiterated that the source of the tip was neither himself nor his family.
While details of the incident were not addressed in Costello’s remarks, he did refer to “psycho-emotional
torment from a head coach, as well as an incident of physical assault by an assistant coach.” (The complete statement is attached at the end of this article.)
“As a result of what occurred and is still occurring, my life is destroyed. Since October, I have endured everything that every high schooler seeks to avoid. Bullying. Shunning, Isolation. Not only at school, but in the public forum.”
Staples High School senior Jonathan Costello
“As a result of what occurred and is still occurring, my life is destroyed,” Costello said. “Since October, I have endured everything that every high schooler seeks to avoid. Bullying. Shunning, Isolation. Not only at school, but in the public forum.”
Costello said his parents, who were with him at the meeting, were initially told they would be contacted for a statement about the incident. He said they never were.
Eventually, the student said, the family sent a letter to school officials detailing what happened at the retreat. He said the administration has yet to respond as of Thursday,
“On Oct. 24, I was not yet ready to report the abuse that happened to me. All I wanted to do was get through the season,” Costello said “What has happened to me since is exactly why I was afraid to come forward in the first place.”
Costello said he should not be blamed for the departure of the coaches.
“The school’s failure to make that abundantly clear has directly caused me and my family unending, meaningful harm. I need it to stop,” he said.
Costello said his grades have suffered, and he has lost most of his friends, all for telling the truth when questioned.
Doug Pardon, another speaker, questioned the non-renewals of contracts for the soccer coaches as well as a well-regarded tennis coach.
In deference to the student’s comments, however, he said he was not going to read most of his prepared remarks.
Instead, Pardon said he was speaking in support of coaches in general and to ask that their contracts be renewed.
A former coach himself, Pardon said he wanted to know the policies and procedures used by administrators to decide whether to renew a coach’s contract.
He also asked what criteria are set for coaches so that expectations are met. “I don’t know what they are,” he said.
Pardon asked how school board policies on bullying factor into the situation. “One can also say coaches are being bullied,” he said.
Pardon said contracts for three of the high school’s four soccer coaches were not renewed, as well as for the varsity tennis coach. He said that is something that has not happened before.
In the case of the tennis coach, Pardon said he has an exemplary record and reviews until the most recent one.
“The thing that upset me the most is that a coach in this room received a non-renewal letter and, in that letter, [it stated] we have determined you fell well below the standards required by the Board of Ed,” Pardon said. “This is a former Staples graduate who has coached Staples soccer for 18 years.”
“It is very hard as a board member to sit and listen to two different things and then just go away to work tomorrow. I just can’t pretend I didn’t hear what I just heard.”
Board of Education member Robert Harrington
Board Chair Lee Goldstein said because the contract non-renewals could be appealed to the school board, which would serve as the jury to decide whether the administration’s actions were correct, most members don’t know the facts and can’t comment on the situation. It is essentially a personnel matter, she indicated.
“That is the way we want to keep it to be fair and impartial to everyone,” Goldstein said.
Board member Robert Harrington, however, said it was hard not to respond.
“It is very hard as a board member to sit and listen to two different things and then just go away to work tomorrow,” Harrington said. “I just can’t pretend I didn’t hear what I just heard.”
Board member Jill Dillion said she hopes that after hearing the public comments, staff will follow up tomorrow with the family and coaches to make sure no one is feeling bullied.
“There will be further outreach,” board Secretary Neil Phillips said.
Supt. of Schools Thomas Scarice acknowledged, in an email, that the non-renewals had occurred. He also said individual students would not be discussed in public.
Freelance writer Linda Conner Lambeck, a reporter for more than four decades at the Connecticut Post and other Hearst publications, is a member of the Education Writers Association.
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Following is the complete statement read by Staples senior Jonathan Costello to the Board of Education, provided by his family’s lawyer.