COMMENTARY: Wrong is wrong, no exceptions (even in Sullivan)

The Sullivan School District appears to be in the middle of a scandal in a year that seems to be riddled with scandals all year, all over the country.

This one isn’t that much different when a school board member verbally abuses a member of the district’s coaching staff.

The most recent school board meeting was certainly heated, per multiple accounts, but the parties that didn’t seem to care were that of the rest of the school board.

For the uninitiated, there was an altercation on October 22 involving school board member Erik Stollard and volleyball coach Tabitha Centers following the school’s Senior Night. In that incident, Stollard approached Centers, uttering a profanity-laced statement to the coach.

The so-called statement by the school board by Board President Jeff White appears to whitewash the events that took place and the punishment that was handed down — a three-game suspension — was nothing more than a slap on the wrist.

The attempted apology read by Stollard was even a huge joke. Even Coach Centers states in her public comments that the interaction did not go as Stollard claims. Centers stated that Stollard was intentionally disrespectful and was intentionally being physically intimidating.

The public attacks on Coach Centers were completely unnecessary, unjustified, and devoid of any facts to back their arguments up. The attacks border on and surpass the definition of slander, and that’s unacceptable.

Nothing to back up how the volleyball team lacked a team culture. Nothing to back up any claims that Centers talked badly about other players. Nothing to back up why Centers “killed” a player’s “love of the game.” Not to sound overly negative, but let’s play the Devil’s Advocate for a moment: Maybe the player wasn’t that good.

But the biggest joke in this entire meeting is that all these people were so focused on one issue that wasn’t even on the agenda. They didn’t bother to care about their property taxes going up, even despite the school board keeping their levy as it is at $4.37 per $100 assessed value.

Coach Centers, despite everything that has happened since that incident, still remains the volleyball coach at Sullivan High School. However, she tendered her resignation as the eighth-grade coach.

The Sullivan alum did not and should not deserve any of the unnecessary attacks, whether it’s from Stollard or the ignorant masses in the peanut gallery. How much more abuse until she tells the toxic masses in Sullivan to — not to be intentionally crude…but — go eff themselves?