A former Staples High School coach has filed a complaint with the state Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities against the Westport School District stating he was fired from his position because of racial discrimination.
David Alexis, a Norwalk resident, filed the complaint with the state in April, and town officials received it last week. He was a coach in the Staples athletic program for four seasons and is an African American, according to the complaint.
Alexis’ attorney, Jason Gladstone, filed an intent to sue with town officials in February (See WestportNow Feb. 16).
Schools Superintendent Elliott Landon was not immediately available for comment.
According to the complaint, Alexis was asked to be an assistant track and field coach and would be paid, and despite working in the position he was never paid.
He was asked to return for the 2005 season, according to the complaint, and filled out an application and was submitted to a background check.
“I began the season with the expectation that I would be paid,” the complaint said. “Later that season when I asked about being paid, the head boy’s coach told me that there were ‘no funds available.’”
Two weeks after the conversation, the complaint said, two new “Caucasian coaches” were hired for pay.
“During the winter of 2006, the parents of several of the girl’s teams demanded that I be paid and attempted to conduct a fund-raiser to raise funds so that I could be paid,” the complaint said. “(School officials) blocked the parents’ initiatives by refusing to authorize the fund-raiser.”
Alexis again applied for paid employment in December 2006, according to the complaint, and he began coaching with the expectations he would be paid.
“During the course of my coaching (with the district), head coach Laddy Lawrence became increasingly hostile toward me,” the complaint said.
The complaint said Lawrence admitted to tipping off school officials that Alexis and his family did not live in the Westport School District, and school officials questioned the Alexis family about residency.
“After the claim was unsubstantiated and it was determined that we did live in Westport, a second ‘anonymous tip’ was made less than two weeks later,” the complaint said. School officials again questioned the family, the document said.
In January, a school trainer “said he saw me massaging the calf of a female athlete,” and school officials “did an investigation and initially cleared me,” the complaint said.
The complaint said an anonymous individual took the complaint to Landon and the Board of Education.
Landon then decided Alexis was no longer allowed “to coach any team, to assist in coaching any team or to have any contact with students during the school day or during extracurricular activities,” according to the complaint.
