Fired coach: Tacoma schools’ hypocrisy

Re: “Lincoln wrestling coach says he was fired for giving kids rides home” (TNT 3/18).

I find it interesting that the upper level Tacoma School District (TSD) administrators are apparently given a pass when they fail to follow the District’s policies and regulations, yet a lower level employee such as the Lincoln wrestling coach is fired for failing to comply with the regulations.

TSD spokesman Dan Voelpel called the rules “nonnegotiable” when referring to the Lincoln coach. However, a recent TNT article, “Teachers say their planned track meet is getting the runaround from Tacoma Public Schools” (TNT 3/14), highlights the fact that the District is violating its Use of School Facilities policy by prioritizing an outside organization’s event over a school district event.

In this case the rules are apparently negotiable as Voelpel stated that the District is going to “review the policy.”

Will any of the TSD administrators that violated the facilities policy be held accountable to the same extent as the Lincoln coach? My experience as a TSD employee tells me “no” since the upper level administrators evidently get to pick and choose which policies and regulations to follow and which ones they can disregard.

This story was originally published March 31, 2017 at 5:47 PM with the headline "Fired coach: Tacoma schools’ hypocrisy."