A violent late hit broke a kid’s jaw. We deserve more than hot air and excuses | Opinion
It was a big story, the kind hometown newspapers like The News Tribune exist for.
It involved important community traditions, people’s kids, local schools — and controversy.
It happened during this year’s Fish Bowl: the annual high school football clash between Gig Harbor and Peninsula. The rivalry game attracted a stadium full of fans, as it always does, largely friends, family members and classmates of the prep players on the field.
At its best, local high school sports can bring people together and remind us of all the small things that make life worth living — like the lasting memories and friendships, and the cleansing optimism of youth. It’s what games like the Fish Bowl are all about.
At its worst, video captured during the Sept. 15 matchup played at a brightly lit Roy Anderson Field — showing Gig Harbor quarterback Koi Calhoun being violently slammed into the ground by an opposing Peninsula player after the whistle had blown — speaks for itself.
Almost a month has passed since the Fish Bowl and the play that broke Calhoun’s jaw, and as The News Tribune reported last week, plenty of important questions remain. Most prominently, the public awaits the results of a school district investigation.
The aftermath has been messy, including accusations that Calhoun was punched after his helmet came off. His parents filed a police report. So far, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department has found no evidence to support the punching allegation, but The News Tribune has confirmed that at least some of the coaches involved have faced consequences imposed by the district.
Separate from any formal analysis of the evidence?
There’s no replay review required:
Peninsula School District officials from top to bottom — including staff from both schools and members of the local school board — have failed to live up to even the most basic expectations of the job.
Their duty is to serve the public, and that includes answering the tough questions.
So far? The silence has been damning, including the continued refusal by district officials to speak directly with local media about what transpired.
It amounts to institutional cowardice — orchestrated at taxpayer expense.
The hit that broke Calhoun’s jaw
The play occurred just before halftime.
With the Tides trailing by two scores, Calhoun — a sophomore backup thrust into the lineup after an injury to the team’s starter in the second game of the season — stepped up and heaved a shot over the middle, into heavy coverage, where it was picked off and eventually returned to midfield.
But it’s what happened 20 yards away from the action that matters. Video shows the 5-foot, 9-inch, 150-pound Calhoun being legally blocked by a Peninsula player at the conclusion of the play. Then, a second member of the Seahawks’ defense rushes in, after the whistle had been blown, and lifts Calhoun off his feet, slamming him head first into the hard turf. The late hit was facemask-to-facemask, earning an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty from officials.
According to some in attendance, including a News Tribune photographer, it was chilling. Calhoun stayed down for roughly 10 minutes before paramedics even arrived.
As Gig Harbor Now reported after the game, Calhoun was tended to on the field for roughly 25 minutes in all before he was loaded onto a stretcher and taken by ambulance to the hospital, where he was treated for a broken jaw — including a two-hour surgery the next day.
After the game, Tides’ head coach Darrin Reeves strongly suggested to Gig Harbor Now that the hit that injured Calhoun was dirty — and his teammates rallied in response.
The Tides stormed back to win the 45th Fish Bowl, 21-20, for what it’s worth.
“The only thing we could do about it was on the scoreboard and that’s what we did,” Reeves told the local website.
How grownups and leaders have responded in the aftermath of last month’s Fish Bowl hasn’t been anywhere near as commendable.
District officials dodge questions
I feel bad for the spokespeople and communications professionals — at least sometimes.
Increasingly, it seems like they serve as sacrificial lambs when their bosses — the people who make the decisions, and the ones who should be facing the public — go into hiding, attempting to dodge media scrutiny and difficult interviews.
What’s occurred in the aftermath of the Sept. 15 Fish Bowl is a prime example.
Clearly, the community — and particularly those who sat in the stands and watched Calhoun being loaded onto a stretcher — deserves answers.
People deserve accountability, and the Peninsula School District, including elected members of the local school board, have failed to deliver any of it.
Most recently, The News Tribune preps reporter Jon Manley and Peninsula Gateway reporter Aspen Shumpert sought a response to legitimate questions surrounding the one-game ban several Gig Harbor High School coaches faced, which they’d confirmed during the process of reporting.
More broadly, Manley and Shumpert were looking for any useful information about how the district had responded to what transpired at Roy Anderson Field — directly from the people who would know or who have a stake in such decisions. That means high-level school district officials.
Instead, after multiple attempts, The News Tribune had to settle for heavily massaged, boilerplate statements provided by Peninsula School District spokesperson Danielle Chastaine. (Full disclosure: Chastaine formerly worked as a reporter at The Gateway.)
Manley and Shumpert had established the brief suspensions of several Gig Harbor coaches and wanted to know if Peninsula coaches had faced similar discipline.
It’s a fair question — and one that deserves an answer.
“I can’t speak to that,” Chastaine told The News Tribune in a phone call on Thursday, Oct. 5 — almost three weeks after the Fish Bowl and nearly two weeks after Gig Harbor coaches had been temporarily banned from the sideline, returning the following week.
It was just the beginning. Speaking on behalf of the district, as she’s paid to do, Chastaine wouldn’t even confirm whether it was justified for The News Tribune to describe the one-game ban Gig Harbor coaches faced as a suspension or a form of discipline.
“For privacy reasons and because it’s still an open investigation, I’m not able to comment on what it is,” Chastaine said. “Suspension and discipline are both inaccurate. Actions were taken. Our full coaching staffs are back at both schools.”
Actions were taken? Really?
That’s not transparency — it’s the meaningless musings of lawyers working on the district’s dime.
The truth
Let’s get real for a moment, in part because how the Peninsula School District has responded isn’t an isolated occurrence — it’s an increasingly commonplace tactic used by disingenuous public agencies at a time when watchdog journalists are stretched thinner and thinner.
Are there things that would be inappropriate or unwise for Peninsula School District officials to say? Things that could get someone sued? Of course. Are there thorny legal and privacy concerns to navigate, including mandates tied to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, commonly known as FERPA, that limit what a district can say about individual students? No doubt.
But the idea that there’s some blanket law that prohibits the district from saying anything of substance on the record — or from directly responding to local journalists working on the community’s behalf, face-to-face or over the phone, is hot garbage.
Could district officials directly acknowledge that a player was injured during the Fish Bowl — even if it’s not by name?
Could they make clear that they take the health and safety of students seriously — and provide details on how they’ve responded?
Could they acknowledge there were concerns about crowd size at the game and access — and address these concerns specifically?
Could they state the obvious: that the situation requires a sober analysis of what transpired?
Could they commit to making any necessary changes?
You already know the answer.
In the course of reporting The News Tribune’s most recent story, Peninsula coach and athletic director Ross Filkins declined to comment.
So did Gig Harbor athletic director Blair Suek and the team’s head football coach.
Superintendent Krestin Bahr did not respond to The News Tribune. For the record, her annual taxpayer-funded salary is $267,000.
School Board President Natalie Wimberley said the board wouldn’t comment, citing the ongoing investigation. For the record, she’s standing for re-election in less than a month.
Instead, the district forced a spokesperson to do the dirty work — in the form of a mealy-mouthed Oct. 2 statement.
The official district missive indicated little more than an “extensive investigation” had been launched and that “actions” had been “taken to address the conduct of certain individuals.”
“The district takes issues of sportsmanship, safety, and community very seriously,” the statement suggested. “Moving forward,” it added, “we will continue to review logistical considerations such as capacity, safety, and security related to Roy Anderson Field.”
“To protect the privacy of these individuals, no further comment will be made,” the statement concluded.
That’s not good enough.
Deep down, I suspect Peninsula School District officials in positions of power know better.
That’s what makes it so brazen — and so maddening.
