After a month-long investigation into a remark made by a white coach to a black student at Cedar Ridge High School in Orange County, the Orange school system has demoted coach Jim Pappas but left him as a teacher. He loses $28,000 a year in pay.
Based on the stories I’ve read, Pappas’ comment was, indeed, atrocious and callous. By his own admission, he told the student, who was having trouble doing chin-ups, that it was better to be “hanging from the bar than from a tree.” Just plain awful. I understand why the young man’s parents were outraged.
What I’m wondering, however, is this: If the school system believes Mr. Pappas shouldn’t be a coach, why does the system want him as a teacher?
