Judge reinstates high school student in Web message dispute
By The Associated Press
04.21.01
PITTSBURGH — A student who won a court order returning him to the high school volleyball team after he was kicked off for disparaging remarks on the Internet probably won't get another chance to serve.
He says the coaches resigned and the team was disbanded because he wanted to come back and play.
An emergency hearing was held in federal court on April 19 after the American Civil Liberties Union complained that Keystone Oaks High School allowed the team to be disbanded to get around Judge Donetta Ambrose's order last week.
The judge had said Jack Flaherty Jr. could return to the team.
School officials had banned Flaherty from the team because of several disparaging remarks he posted on an Internet message board, including one about the mother of a player for a rival team. The player's mother is also an art teacher at Keystone Oaks. Flahery has had other conflicts with administrators over school policies.
Ambrose ruled last week that Flaherty could return to the team and officials could not to take any retaliatory measures against him.
On April 17, however, Flaherty, an 18-year-old senior, said he learned boys' volleyball coach Jeffrey Sieg and assistant coach David Rushi were resigning and that the school's athletic director said it was because Flaherty was returning to the team. The next day, many players quit the team as well.
Flaherty said in a court document he was asked by players and school administrators whether he intended to rejoin the team. Each time, he said he planned to return.
A game with Mount Lebanon scheduled for April 19 was canceled. Nine games remained in the season after that.
Neither coach returned telephone calls for comment to the Associated Press. Carl DeJulio, superintendent of the Keystone Oaks School District, said the district intended to comply with the court order but can't now "because the school no longer has a boys' volleyball team."
DeJulio said coaching positions must be advertised for two weeks. Four weeks remain in the volleyball season. DeJulio refused to say why the coaches resigned.
Witold Walczak, executive director of the Pittsburgh ACLU chapter, said nothing could be done to salvage the volleyball team this season, but "we will be exploring contempt (charges) against the district."
The school district has about 2,800 students, including 900 in the high school, from the Pittsburgh suburbs of Green Tree, Dormont and Castle Shannon.