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Sparta District 140 BOE holds special session

Posted January 29, 2015 10:00 pm

By Pete Spitler The Herald Tribune

SPARTA -- The Sparta District 140 Board of Education met in special session on Thursday at Sparta Lincoln School and after a nearly two-and-a-half-hour executive session, accepted the resignation of Sparta High School assistant boys basketball coach Keith Kohrs.

The resignation, which was approved in a 5-0 vote by the board with only Vice President Stephanie Bernardoni absent, was effective immediately.

Kohrs, who was the junior varsity coach and an assistant varsity coach, was one of three paid boys basketball coaches at the school, according to Athletic Director Rich Williams.

The other two are varsity coach Jeff Bowlby and freshman coach Barry Dickerson. Williams, who declined to comment on the board's action, said assistant coaches Mark Robertson and Dickerson will coach the Bulldogs' JV team for the remainder of the season.

"As you know as well as I, the board can only take action in open session," said Sparta District 140 Superintendent Larry Beattie in a phone interview with the Herald Tribune on Friday regarding Bowlby's status with the team. "You can deduce from that it's status quo."

A series of Facebook posts by Bowlby and Kohrs are part of an investigation that includes a former employee of the district, Kristina Clay, and her son - who is a member of the Sparta High School basketball team.

After spending roughly 10 minutes approving Columbia District No. 4's withdraw from the Perandoe Special Education District on Thursday, the board went into executive session to "discuss the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance or dismissal of a specific employee," according to the meeting's agenda.

During the closed session, Rosetta Clay - who is Kristina Clay's mother - Kristina Clay and Kristina Clay's son were called from the main room into the closed session at separate points to speak to two attorneys involved with the investigation, Stephanie Jones and James Huff.

Both are part of the law firm Hodges, Loizzi, Eisenhammer, Rodick and Kohn LLP. Jones practices in all areas of school law - including labor relations, litigation and student issues, according to the firm's website.

Copies of the Facebook comments were provided to the Herald Tribune by Rosetta Clay and show a history of social media interactions between Kohrs and Kristina Clay that began during football season.

More recent posts involved Kristina Clay's son.

"It's going to be an ongoing investigation that the attorneys are going to help me go through because there's serious allegations we don't want to make snap decisions on," Beattie said, who added that the complainant will get a "full, written response" at the conclusion of the investigation.

Kristina Clay said she contacted the Illinois State Board of Education about the Facebook comments and was told to take it up with the school's principal and "go up from there."

The Beginning

According to Rosetta Clay, the situation began Sept. 19, when Sparta High School hosted Pinckneyville.

A former Sparta player was on Pinckneyville's team and allegations that one of that player's former Bulldogs teammates attempted to intentionally injure him during the game were being spread on social media.

Kristina Clay provided copies of the comments to the Herald Tribune from the original conversation, in which she posted a comment that questioned the sportsmanship of a player allegedly tackling someone by the legs when they didn't have possession of the ball.

Kohrs responded with a comment that praised both players and then questioned why someone was "trying to make this into a Bulldogs versus (player's name) game?"

Kohrs also cautioned both players in a separate post.

"Don't get caught up in this BS with someone trying to pit you against each other," he allegedly wrote.

Clay contends her intentions were not to pit one player against another and her statements were purely opinion.

"You're trying to make like someone's doing that and it isn't that at all," she wrote.

The pair continued to exchange Facebook responses regarding the situation, including a response from Clay that claimed it is illegal for school personnel to have students as Facebook friends.

Eventually, the subject of Clay's previous employment with the district came up.

"I commented on her post because this lady was trying to put one of our players against the kid that moved," Kohrs wrote. "Then she says since I'm a coach and a teacher's aide I'm not allowed to be (Facebook) friends with my players.

"She's anti-Sparta because she was fired by the school district."

Clay told the Herald Tribune on Thursday that she gave two weeks notice of resignation from her position as a paraprofessional with the district and was not fired.

During the Friday phone interview, Beattie said Clay resigned from the district on November 7, 2013 and no hearings were scheduled in regard to her employment.

Kohrs followed that post with another that appeared to further explain his position with the district and reasoning for having players as Facebook friends.

"I was hired 2 weeks ago to be an aid(e) for a child with disabilities, the same kind of position at the school that she once did. I guess there's some heartache there.

"I am FB friends with my players so that I can see what they are doing on social media. They have every right to delete (me) but they haven't."

On Sept. 22, the Monday after the Pinckneyville-Sparta game, Kristina Clay, Rosetta Clay, Kohrs and Sparta High School Principal Scott Beckley reportedly had a meeting about the situation.

"Our concerns were not taken care of," Rosetta Clay said in a phone interview on Friday.

Things allegedly got worse during the recent Sparta Mid-Winter Classic.

The Turning Point

On Jan. 23 at 10:05 p.m., Kristina Clay's son allegedly made a Facebook post that said "This ball stuff ain't for me."

Another member of the team allegedly responded three minutes later.

"Quit the (expletive) team then instead of sharing it for likes, keep it 100," the post began. "(Racial slur) chill out and continue to sit on that (expletive) bench or bounce off the team. That simple."

Several hours later, Kohrs wrote a post congratulating that player on their all-tournament team selection.

"Oh and by the way much respect for your response on supposedly teammates comments on Facebook," he allegedly added. "That's what a teammate should do...not look for likes and let idiots comment on your coaches.

"It's like looking for the cure (for) cancer but come to find you have a cancer on your team."

Bowlby allegedly commented roughly 20 minutes later.

"Good post coach and yes (player's name) had a great week. But the team pulled together throughout the (Facebook) problem. That's a sign of maturity, something the other party knows nothing about."

Practice Incident

According to Rosetta Clay, there was an incident at the team's practice on Jan. 26 that led to Thursday's special meeting of the Board of Education.

Kristina Clay's son allegedly inquired to coaches about what he had to do to get back on the court and, according to Clay, got an inappropriate response.

On Jan. 27, Bowlby posted on Facebook that he had decided to leave the social media site because "too many bad things have been brought about by being sucked into different situations and it's on the verge of costing me some of the things I'm very passionate about."

Bowlby later went on to write "some people are very vengeful and use everything I say against me and when the bad outweighs the good, it's time to go."

The Next Step

Rosetta Clay said she will be contacting the State Board of Education again, the Illinois Association of School Boards and the IHSA, among other organizations.

"Every agency I think will be interested I am going to call," she said.

Kristina Clay said her son cannot attend practices or games "because the environment isn't safe until the investigation is done."

When asked about the dangers of Facebook, Beattie offered his opinion.

"I can't stress enough for professionals in the public arena to not comment about students," he said. "I can't stress that enough. It's just not appropriate."

The next meeting of the Sparta District 140 Board of Education is Feb. 16 at 7 p.m. at Sparta High School.

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