MAPLEWOOD, NJ — The father of a former Columbia High School baseball player, who has long said his son was repeatedly bullied by his coaches, is now demanding to know why the results of the special Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying investigation into the coaching staff have still not been reported roughly four months after they were due to the South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education.
Randy Nathan said no school district official has responded to recent emails he sent questioning why special investigator LeRoy Seitz’s report has yet to be submitted weeks after it was supposed to be. Superintendent of Schools John Ramos Sr. first announced the investigation during a BOE meeting Monday, Feb. 22, at which time he said it would take two to four weeks to be completed. Seitz, the current interim superintendent of the Parsippany-Troy Hills School District, was hired Friday, Feb. 26, to conduct the investigation for a maximum of $5,000.
Nathan said he finds it disgusting that the investigation has taken this long, pointing out it has surpassed the entire 2016 baseball season, when coaches Joe Fischetti, Matt Becht, Sam Maietta and Steve Campos were only rehired by the board pending its findings. At the same time, Nathan said he is not surprised, after dealing with what he feels has been the district’s mishandling of his son’s situation for the past two years.
“There’s only so long that you can stay frustrated and angry because, now, it’s almost like a complete joke,” Nathan, who works as anti-bullying expert, told the News-Record in a phone interview on Thursday, June 16. “It is a sad state of affairs. And it clearly demonstrates just how poorly this school has seriously understood and taken this case on.”
District spokeswoman Suzanne Turner said the investigation has lasted this long for several reasons, starting with insurance issues that had to be resolved before Seitz could even be hired. Once he was contracted, Turner said Seitz was forced to delay his work due to a personal emergency. Then, when the investigation finally got under way, she said he faced difficulties related to the availability of people he needed to interview, including some legal concerns that had to be clarified.
The combination of these issues caused Seitz’s investigation to stall, Turner said. And while the district never intended for the process to last so long, she said the quality of the final report is what really matters.
“Our priority is for this report to be conclusive,” Turner told the News-Record in an email Monday, June 20. “Therefore, whatever time has been required has been taken. We would rather have a thorough and conclusive report that took a little longer than expected, than an inconclusive report delivered more quickly.”
Turner added Seitz had actually drafted a report that Ramos intended to share with the board at its meeting Monday, June 20, but the district decided to hold off, after it learned a “key witness” previously unavailable to be interviewed had become free to talk. She said the district decided to have Seitz speak with this person and update his results. As a result, she said the district expects to have the report ready in time for the board’s July meeting.
But no matter how long the investigation takes, Nathan has doubts about how comprehensive it will be. He said that, during his interview with Seitz, the investigator mentioned he had been tasked with looking into five HIB complaints. This surprised Nathan, since there are 10 confirmed cases of HIB against the coaches on file regarding their treatment of his son, Alex, and David DeFranco, a fellow player, between August 2014 and August 2015. According to the complaint reports, the incidents included the coaches creating a hostile environment for Alex Nathan by talking about him to other players and benching him while all others played; the Booster Club asking DeFranco and his family not to attend the end-of-year of banquet; and the coaches at one point cutting both boys from the team after Randy Nathan and DeFranco complained to the district about the coaches’ treatment of the team in general.
In the past, Nathan has criticized the district’s decision to look into these cases again after they were already confirmed by Ramos himself. But he said if Seitz is going to do so, he should investigate all 10 incidents to get the complete picture of what happened.
Turner clarified that the board members had asked Seitz to further look into cases that had been previously reviewed and submitted to them. She said she could not comment on how many cases he is investigating or who is involved.
Seitz forwarded the News-Record’s request for comment to Turner.
Whenever the investigation results are submitted, Nathan said he will be eager to read them so he can dispute them if he disagrees. But Seitz’s findings will not be the only ruling to come regarding HIB and the CHS baseball program. On Tuesday, April 26, Nathan filed a petition with the New Jersey Education Commissioner’s Office outlining everything that happened to his son and DeFranco and requesting the office hold the district accountable for not following the mandated procedure for investigating HIB, according to the New Jersey Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act. The office has not taken any action yet, as the district only submitted its response Monday, June 20.
The Essex County Office of Education has already found that the district violated the state’s Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act by failing to follow the mandated procedure for investigating HIB. Specifically, it ruled the district failed to meet the 10-day timeline for investigating a complaint mandated by the state’s anti-bullying act, after Nathan first complained to the district at the end of the 2014 baseball season. It also found CHS Athletic Director Larry Busichio initially had looked into Nathan’s complaints, when board counsel Phil Stern should have, as the district’s anti-bullying coordinator.
The SOMA school district is also still facing the lawsuit filed by DeFranco, alleging the coaching staff repeatedly bullied him. That litigation draws from many of the incidents in the 10 verified HIB complaints, including a time when all four coaches allegedly locked him in a room and yelled at him for complaining to the district about them. DeFranco also alleges that Fischetti, Becht, Maietta and Campos used “lewd, racist and vulgar” language and used expletives when making reference to himself and his teammates. After being cut and then reinstated, he alleges he was often told he would be playing in games only to be benched, with the coaches later joking about how well he had played. He also alleges the coaches at one point did not remove an offensive sign about another player that had been posted.
Fischetti, the head baseball coach, previously told the News-Record he was advised not to comment due to the pending litigation.
Through these measures, Nathan said he hopes the truth about what happened to his son comes out, so that Alex will get some level of vindication. Nathan said his son has never been the same after his experiences on the baseball team, changing from a loving boy with whom he used to play ball and talk constantly to someone filled with anger who barely engages with him. It breaks his heart to see the change in his son, Nathan said, when the school district could have prevented it from happening, had it followed proper HIB investigatory protocol. But he believes it did not do enough to protect his son and other students, which is why he is determined to see the district held accountable.
“My little boy, my wonderful Alex — they damaged him,” Nathan said. “They hurt him in such a way that it could take years for him to rediscover who he is and what matters to him and rebuild his confidence.
“If (it’s found that) what happened is true and that these coaches are bad, I really might cry,” he continued. “I just want so badly to have my son realize that he did nothing wrong. He was a target.”
Nathan and DeFranco are not the only ones to speak out against the coaches. Several parents voiced their concerns about the coaching staff to the district and BOE during the past few years, with some speaking out at the board meetings, when it came time for the board to reappoint Fischetti, Becht, Maietta and Campos for the 2015 and 2016 baseball seasons. But many parents and players have also come to the coaches’ defense, denying the four had ever engaged in bullying and praising the way they engage with the students. Most recently, nearly all of the returning players from the 2015 baseball team signed a petition supporting the coaches. Coaches, administrators and staff throughout the state and district have also written letters in favor of them.
Despite the allegations against them, the coaching staff once again led their players to a successful baseball season. According to Turner, the varsity team won the SEC Conference Title for the second straight year and finished with a record of 17-10. Fischetti will also soon offer his summer league to returning players, which is not run through the district.