A high school head coach and six assistant coaches at McKinley Senior High School in Canton, Ohio were fired for forcing a football player to eat a pepperoni pizza. The student is a Hebrew Israelite whose family eats kosher. The coaches allegedly forced the student to eat it because the student missed a practice due to an injury. The coaches allegedly told the student if he did not eat the pork-containing pizza, his teammates would have to do extra drills.
From ABC News:
The alleged incident was captured on the school's surveillance cameras, according to Canton City School District superintendent Jeff Talbert. However, the video has not been released.
…
On Thursday evening, the Canton City School District's board of education voted 5-0 to terminate the head football coach, Marcus Wattley, along with six assistant coaches, Cade Brodie, Joshua Grimsley, Romero Harris, Frank McLeod, Zachary Sweat and Tyler Thatcher. Their contracts will not be renewed at McKinley Senior High School or anywhere else in the school district.
Wattley's attorney claims his client didn't force the student to eat the pizza. If that's true, the video would have shown that, and yet the school fired him anyway. Wattley's story doesn't sound kosher to me. (The other thing that stood out is that this school has seven football coaches! That must cost the school a lot of money. I guess a program that gives students head injuries is more important than providing them with an education.)
